Today is the eve of the Feast of the Three Kings in the Roman Catholic Church. This feast day marks the end of the Christmas season and celebrates the day the Magi found the child Jesus and his family. In Spain, the eve is usually celebrated with more pomp and ceremony than the day itself. In Granada, there was a parade through the center of the city.
The parade was unlike any I’d ever been to in the states. Disproportionate throngs of people lined the streets so that it was difficult to see through to the actual event, which was little more than a line of nearly the same floats. The parade appeared to celebrate the history of the city, as well as the arrival of the kings, with processions of young people dressed as Roman legionnaires, Muslim soldiers, and finally Christian soldiers. Between the floats, squads of children dessed as Arabs marched. Smaller floats decorated with sequins and exotic animals made up the delegations of the kings. Children dressed in oriental and Arabic garb sat upon them and threw handfuls of candy to the crowds. The floats of the kings were decorated in the same way and emblazoned with the glittering names of corporate sponsors. Men dressed in flowing robes with gold crowns and magnificent beards threw candy by the bucket-load, and spectators young and old alike dove for the sweets as though they were gold coins. Even my American companion, Jeremy, was lunging for every pastille that landed in a five-foot radius. Each float passed in its own cloud of exultant music, generating roars from the crowd for more candies.
The paraded ended with a few of the city’s emergency services passing in review. When all was finished, the crowds spilled over into the streets, filling all the blocks I could see. The traffic lights blinked in futility, and a single car pushed its way through the horde, it’s origin and destination a mystery to me among the countless bodies.
Back at the hostel, we had homemade seafood paella and shared parade loot in the bar on the terrace. Later, fireworks filled the sky above the cathedral and we had the best seats in the city.
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