Today was the final day of delivery for the Three kings toys to the children in the campo….
I am thrilled to announce that this year 1035 children will receive a small gift tomorrow!!!
None of this would have been possible without the amazing donations from so many people here in San Miguel and all over the world….
These have been hard times the last two years with many communities needing help so thank you all so much for your kindness and contributions.
Also I need to thank my team of workers, too many to mention, you know who you are and how important you were to make this toy drive yet again a huge success!!
Judy, Jesus and myself delivered gifts to the last two small villages and in the photos you see how excited the children are …..for some of them this gift will be the only thing they receive.
At Jessica’s community we were treated to the traditional Rosca de Reyes ceremony..
Rosca de Reyes is a sweet bread, which is a special food for Three King's Day, known as "Día de Reyes" in Spanish, and celebrated on January 6 in Mexico. The holiday is sometimes referred to as the Twelfth Night because it falls twelve days after Christmas, but is also known as Epiphany, and marks the day the Wise Men or Magi, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar, are believed to have visited the Christ Child. On this day, Mexican children receive gifts from the three kings, sometimes placed in shoes that the children have left out overnight and placed hay in as a gift of food for the kings' animals.
"Rosca" means wreath and "Reyes" means kings, so a direct translation of Rosca de Reyes would be "Kings' Wreath". The sweet bread is shaped in the form of a wreath and usually has candied fruit on top, and a figurine of a baby baked inside (now made of plastic but previously they were porcelain or tin). This special treat is often simply called "Rosca." The traditions surrounding this sweet bread is similar to the custom of eating King Cake in New Orleans during Carnival season.
In Mexico, it is customary for friends and family to get together on January 6 to eat Rosca, usually accompanied by hot chocolate or another warm drink such as coffee or atole. Usually, each person cuts their own slice and the one who gets a piece of Rosca with the baby figurine is expected to host a party on Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas), which is celebrated on February 2nd. On that day, the traditional food is tamales. Nowadays bakers tend to put several baby figurines in the Rosca, so the responsibility for making (or buying) the tamales can be shared among several people.
What a cutie he is!!
Then we delivered the gifts and a piñata to families who live near a dump and the welcome we always receive there humbles me to the core!!
So again my heart felt thanks to everyone just sad because of Covid we could not get the children their gifts delivered by our Kings!!
Please stay safe and healthy and many blessings..
Yashi Kochi!!
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