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Esta página no está disponible en español. Christmas Lives On for Latinos…Puerto Rican Community Celebrates A Special Day… Thrilling For Children
Christmas Lives On for Latinos By Bart Jones January 6, 2003 One of the more attractive aspects of the Hispanic culture, many Latin American immigrants say, is that you get to celebrate Christmas twice. Yesterday, Latinos across Long Island marked Three Kings Day or what many call "Little Christmas." Children get a second round of presents that sometimes is bigger than on Dec. 24 or Dec. 25. "It's our Christmas," said John Rosado, president of Adelante, a Brentwood community group that organized a "Fiesta del Día de los Reyes Magos" celebration at the Ronkonkoma Beach Pavilion. "Latinos all over the world don't stop celebrating Christmas until after Three Kings Day." Three Kings Day actually falls every Jan. 6 and is a national holiday in many Latin American nations such as Mexico and Guatemala. But churches and community groups on Long Island held their celebrations this weekend since it wasn't feasible during the work week. The celebration is rooted in the Roman Catholic Church's Feast of the Epiphany marking in part the day the Three Wise Men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus. In churches and at community events such as the one sponsored by Adelante, people dress up as various biblical figures and re-enact the scene of the wise men bringing their gifts to Jesus. The celebration extends to the home, where the wise men also leave gifts for children and sometimes adults, too. Of course, just as children in America leave milk and cookies near fireplaces for Santa Claus and his reindeer on Christmas Eve, children in many Latin American countries leave something for the Three Wise Men and their camels. So they place hay or grass and water in cardboard boxes under their beds or in doorways.When they wake up in the morning, the hay and water are gone and the boxes are filled with presents. Three Kings Day usually is accompanied by traditional meals such as arroz con gandules, rice with pigeon peas, along with pork - a favorite among Puerto Ricans during the holiday, said Noemi Robinson of Adelante. César Boc, 19, an immigrant from Guatemala who attended services at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Greenport, said Three Kings Day is a major event for him and his countrymen. "It's the manifestation that Christ has really been born," he said. While most Latino children received toys and clothes, Boc, an honors student at Southold High School, got something a little unusual: a copy of Isaac Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy." At St. Agnes, parishioners celebrated an all-Spanish Three Kings celebration Saturday night, and then a bilingual service yesterday for both Latino and Anglo parishioners. Sister Margaret Smyth said it was a way to bring both cultures together. Some Latino immigrants fear the "Little Christmas" tradition may be dying, since many of their children and grandchildren don't celebrate it here. Raul Jiménez, 58, of Ronkonkoma, a native of Puerto Rico who came to New York in 1966, said he attended Adelante's event yesterday partly to remember. "To me it brings back memories of when I was a little boy growing up in Puerto Rico," he said.
Puerto Rican Community Celebrates A Special Day By Kevin Lynch January 6, 2003 With the holiday season winding to a close, thousands of Latinos lined up Sunday in Humboldt Park for a second round of gifts as volunteers handed out about 6,000 presents during the eighth annual Three Kings Day celebration. Also known as the Epiphany, the observance actually falls on Jan. 6 and commemorates the biblical story of the Three Wise Men who journeyed to Bethlehem to present gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus. "The Wise Men were visionaries," said Jose Lopez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, which helped organize the celebration. "They were able to see that despite the humble surroundings of Jesus' birth, that he had this great destiny. So the Wise Men became a symbol for Puerto Ricans. Anytime you've been oppressed as a group, you need someone with vision and a sense of destiny." Many Puerto Ricans consider Three Kings Day the most important on the calendar. For Georgina Aponte, 47, of the North Side, the celebration offers a sense of nostalgia for her childhood in Puerto Rico, where she put a box of grass under her bed for the Wise Men's camels. The next morning, she would wake up and found a ball or a doll, she said. The celebration included caroling and a meal of roast park, beans and rice and holiday candies. "I just think it's such a beautiful tradition. I wish all mothers would pass this on to their children as my mother did to me," Aponte said, hugging her 9-year-old daughter, Koralyz Xuarez. For Koralyz, the value of the holiday is a little more tangible. "I like it because I get presents on Three Kings Day and Christmas . . . and my birthday too," she said. Aponte said her family exchanged presents on Christmas when she was growing up in Puerto Rico, but in many households Three Kings Day, or Dia de los Reyes, was the only one for receiving holiday gifts. The Wise Men at Sunday's celebration, three burly bikers in colorful gilded robes and gold crowns, led a parade down Division Street. Spirits were high, and Latin music blared from the procession, which included hundreds of marchers and about 20 bikers from the Latin American Motorcycle Association, which helped collect gifts. A line snaked around Clemente High School, where about 1,000 more presents were distributed than last year, Lopez said.
Thrilling Day For Children MIGUEL PEREZ The Record, Bergen County, NJ January 6, 2003 In many Hispanic homes throughout North Jersey, and indeed the whole world, children are peeking under their beds today with the same glee and anticipation that most of us had two weeks ago when we looked under the Christmas tree. Instead of milk and cookies for Santa, last night they left water and grass for the Three Wise Men and their camels. Today is Three Kings Day - the Feast of the Epiphany - the day when Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar bring gifts for the children of Latin America and Spain, as they did for Jesus in Bethlehem. To us, they are much more than three figurines in the Nativity scene. They ride camels that cover a lot of ground on a single night, just like Santa's sleigh. Regrettably, many Latinos, overpowered by Santa's popularity, have abandoned this wonderful tradition in the United States. But many others refuse to let it go. They receive gifts from Santa on Dec. 25, but they also enjoy presents on Jan. 6. Many Hispanic organizations sponsored Three Kings festivities this weekend, and many Latinos have been shopping for toys during the last week. "For me, Jan. 6 is much more important than even Christmas Day," said Amefis Diaz of Wood-Ridge, who was pushing a cart filled with toys for her three nieces and one nephew at the Toys "R" Us store in North Bergen on Saturday. "The Three Kings were very good to me when I was a child in the Dominican Republic, and now I help them be just as good to the children in my family here." In Puerto Rico, Javier Pablos grew up receiving gifts from Santa and the Three Wise Men. And so now that he is a clerk at KB Toys in the Mill Creek Mall in Secaucus, he understands why, among Latinos, the gift-buying season doesn't end on Christmas Eve. At another KB Toys, on Bergenline Avenue in West New York, clerk Natalie Garcia said customers don't tell her why they are there, but if it weren't for the Kings, she asked, "why else would they be buying so many toys during the two weeks after Christmas?" Many Latinos mail gifts back to their homelands for today's festivities. "I'm buying for my two nephews back in Puerto Rico," said Vinny Bernacett of Jersey City. "I just can't forget how wonderful this day was for me when I was a kid on the island. And I want them to enjoy it as much as I did." Depending on the country or community where this holiday is celebrated, the Three Kings could leave the gifts under the beds, by the manger, or next to a pair of shoes containing a letter with a wish list. Luz Melendez of Cliffside Park came from El Salvador 15 years ago. But her two American-born daughters, ages 6 and 11, believe in the Three Kings. "It's a tradition I wanted to pass on to my children," she said as she shopped. "How could I let them miss the most wonderful day of the year?" At Melendez's home, the Three Kings also leave a "Rosca de Reyes" - a special fruit bread enjoyed today throughout Mexico and Central America. "The rosca has little figurines hidden inside," she said, "and those who find them get to throw a party in February." At the San Miguel Bakery in Union City, which caters to the Mexican community, a sign on the window warns customers to order their rosca in advance. "For several days, we have been selling about 20 per day," said clerk Carmen Moranchel. "When they see the sign, even other Latinos who don't know this tradition come in and ask me about 'la rosca.' And once I explain, they put it on their wish list for the Three Wise Men."
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