{"id":46242,"date":"2022-01-06T17:32:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T16:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=46242"},"modified":"2026-01-06T02:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:03:42","slug":"cavalcades-of-the-magi-this-is-how-a-spanish-tradition-spread-through-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/01\/06\/cavalcades-of-the-magi-this-is-how-a-spanish-tradition-spread-through-poland\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavalcades of the Magi: this is how a Spanish tradition spread through Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Three Magi are the ones who bring gifts every Christmas in Spain and in countries of Hispanic origin, but this tradition is spreading further.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2018\/11\/11\/poland-and-spain-the-historical-links-between-two-great-nations-of-europe\/\">Poland and Spain: the historical links between two great Nations of Europe<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>The Three Magi cavalcades, which run through cities and towns throughout Spain, are <strong>a genuinely Spanish Catholic tradition that originated in the second half of the 19th century.<\/strong> Already in the 20th century, this tradition spread to Spanish-American countries such as <strong>Mexico and Venezuela<\/strong>, and also to the <a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/RL\/ride-of-the-kings-in-the-south-east-of-the-czech-republic-00564\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">southeast of the Czech Republic<\/a>. More recently it has come to a traditionally Catholic country: <strong>Poland<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51804082595_7d782d9bfc_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\"><\/p>\n<p>As he explains in the <a href=\"https:\/\/orszak.org\/historia-orszaku-trzech-kroli\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">la Orszak Trzech Kr\u00f3li Fundacja<\/a> (Foundation of the Courtship of the Three Kings), 13 years ago <em>\"<strong>a brave idea arose to organize the typical school Nativity games in a different way<\/strong>, in the space of the city, and invite Warsaw residents and tourists to celebrate together.<strong> The procession entered the streets of the capital for the first time in 2009.<\/strong>\"<\/em> Below these lines, a video of the Warsaw parade in 2017:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n_z8io-Kg5M\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Warsaw initiative was successful and began to spread throughout the Slavic country. <strong>In 2011 another 5 cities joined, in 2012 there were already 24 Polish towns, and in 2013 it began to spread among the Polish community abroad.<\/strong> In 2013, the Courtship of the Magi was held in 96 places around the world, and in 2014 it was already going through the streets of 187 towns, in 7 countries on 3 continents.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51803718494_f8b419563d_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\"> <\/p>\n<p><strong>In 2015, this Polish initiative that emerged from the Spanish tradition already toured 330 cities in 8 countries and 3 continents.<\/strong> In 2016 there were already 420 cities, from 16 countries on 3 continents, including Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the United States, Ukraine, Romania, Rwanda and Ecuador. <a href=\"https:\/\/misericors.org\/orszak-trzech-kroli-2022-w-uroczystosc-objawienia-panskiego-6-stycznia-2022\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This year Cavalcades of the Magi have been organized in more than 600 towns in Poland.<\/a> Here you can see a video of <strong>the parade held today in Krakow:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fsXELK_N7Ko\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unlike the Spanish cavalcades, which are held on the 5th, <strong>the Polish cavalcades are held on January 6<\/strong>, coinciding with the Christian feast of the Epiphany, which became a public holiday in that country in 2011 after half a century.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51804082670_0866905a7b_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\"><\/p>\n<p>Another difference is that <strong>while in Spain the parades are becoming more and more profane<\/strong>, in many cases resembling mere Carnival parades,<strong> in Poland the parades fully maintain their Christian meaning<\/strong>, being linked in many cases with the celebration of Nativity living scenes. A common element of the processions of the Magi of both countries is the characterization of the Magi, with <strong>Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar representing the people of Europe, Asia and Africa<\/strong> (let us remember that the iconography has not always represented their Majesties from the East in this way).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51803718554_432819735d_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\"><\/p>\n<p>Although the Three Magi parades are achieving great success in the country, <strong>in Poland the tradition is maintained that it is Saint Nicholas who brings gifts to children every Christmas Eve, on December 24<\/strong>, while in Spain they are the Three Magi who bring the gifts on January 6.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photos: <a href=\"https:\/\/orszak.org\/historia-orszaku-trzech-kroli\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">la Orszak Trzech Kr\u00f3li Fundacja<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Three Magi are the ones who bring gifts every Christmas in Spain and in countries of Hispanic origin, but this tradition is spreading further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,10712],"tags":[11252,10370,11462,15887],"class_list":["post-46242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-religion-eng","tag-christmas","tag-poland","tag-spain","tag-the-three-magi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}