This was a wonderful year for Christmas lights in my City Heights neighborhood. They cheerfully, often exuberantly, illuminated the night from the day after Thanksgiving until the day after New Year’s. It is sad to see them extinguished, put away, for yet another year, although ours stay up in the house year round. You can never have enough illumination in the darkness…
But that is not to say the seasonal celebrations are over- far from it. Sunday January 6th is the Three Kings Day celebration in Mexico and other Spanish speaking cultures; it is also Orthodox Christmas Eve for those religious traditions based upon the Julian calendar, as opposed to our Gregorian calendar. What that boils down to is that I have to order my rosca de reyes so that I can take it to our Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner.
Many years ago the local panadería provided my first introduction to the rosca, a Mexican sweet bread in the form of a large ring adorned with chopped fruit and flavored with cinnamon, vanilla and anise. Tucked and baked into the batter is a small Jesus figurine- el muñequito. This figurine represents the flight of Jesus from King Herod who planned to thwart the appearance of the prophesied messiah by killing the first born sons.
The Kings’ Ring- rosca- commemorates the arrival of the three kings in Bethlehem, on the date which is also referred to as the Epiphany. The person who receives the slice of rosca with the muñequito is expected to throw a tamale party on February 2, which corresponds to Candlemas- Día de la Candelaria. (Feb 2 also corresponds to Groundhog Day, an odd German- Candlemas conflation.)
In Mexico, it is the Three Kings who traditionally bring gifts to the children. Javier de la Torre on TV Azteca a few years ago was tracking the whereabouts of Los Reyes Magos with the same earnestness and delight as NORAD tracking the whereabouts of Santa Claus. I suspect that Santa Claus has eclipsed Los Reyes in City Heights, but perhaps there will be a few kids who will leave their shoes outside with dried grass for the camels and find them filled with presents the following morning.
Orthodox Christmas is January 7. Orthodox Christians are not Catholics who use a different calendar. The biggest difference between the two is that Catholics acknowledge the pope as their spiritual leader, while Orthodox Christians acknowledge a patriarch within their specific sub-group that identifies along national and ethnic lines. Here in San Diego we have Greek, Syriac, Antiochan, Coptic, Ethiopian, Romanian, Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches.
My family included an Eastern European mother who was part Rusyn/Ruthenian. On the high religious holidays of Easter and Christmas we attended a long incomprehensible midnight mass in Old Slavonic at the Russian or Greek Orthodox church.
What I remember the most about Orthodox Christmas was the traditional foods. Turkey was unheard of- we ate ham. The cookies and cakes were divine. The main ingredients were nuts, poppyseed, honey, and lekvar- prune butter. Here in San Diego we celebrate Russian Christmas Eve with friends and will dine upon Holy Roman Empire sauerkraut, kielbasa, poppyseed cake, rosca and finish everything off with ice cold vodka and a rousing toast to everyone’s health and happiness.
These are just two examples of the ongoing celebrations. The longest Christmas celebration that I am aware of occurs in San Juan Puerto Rico. My family there will be partying off and on through January 22! In San Diego, the House of Puerto Rico in Balboa Park will celebrate El Día de Reyes on Saturday, January 5.
Here in City Heights we adjust our disparate traditions to the demands of work and the limitations upon our free time to cook, socialize- and recover. That is even more reason to savor a slice of sweetness, a cold bracing drink and the warmth of friendship and family. Let us celebrate!
Anna Daniels
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I never heard of Rusyn/Ruthenians before. You learn something new every day, but it gets so confusing to keep up with all the different ethnicities in the world and all the different holidays. Where is Borat when you really need him? Do Rusyn/Ruthenians celebrate birthdays or name days? Life was so much simpler in the old days when there was standardized spelling for all names. Now you have Melissas, Malissas, Mellisas, Alyssas, Myalissas. Anything goes! I can’t keep up with it.
Join the ranks of the confused, John! As a child, I assumed my mother was Russian, and nothing could be further from the truth. She never identified as Rusyn, Rushnak or Ruthenian. I have patched together her genealogy without any authentication. I think her mother grew up on a farm in the Ukraine close to the Carpathian mountains and that she was an ethnic ruthenian- a distinct ethnic group without a country, a comparable status to Kurds today. My mother’s family spoke slovak. Many ethnic groups have existed for a long long time, and because of the internet and the interest in genealogy we are more aware of those ethnic groups.
Rusyns were recruited to work in the western PA steel mills at the turn of the 20th century and the decades afterward, and this group was heavily represented where I grew up. It is no surprise that I ended up marrying a fellow rusyn, although neither of us realized that until many years later.
There has always been numerous ethnicities. There were hundreds of various indigenous groups in the US. There are dozens of different indigenous groups and languages spoken in Mexico. China is full of different ethnic groups. Calling the past a simpler time is too simplistic. Just because we didnt pay attention to them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They have always been here. We just chose to ignore them.
Anna, You never cease to amaze me!
Thank you for spreading valuable culture, historic mementos, religious beliefs that although diverse, these all bring us back to ONE! We are ONE!
Throughout the ages, throughout the religions, we all come together as ONE. Close in date proximity our “different” beliefs, “different” religions, “different” celebrations, “different” cultures are almost palpable separated by only days. They may have different names, but one cultural value, one belief, one celebration remains alive: Love for goodliness, mankind and brotherhood as ONE WORLD with ONE SUPREME BEING and mankind’s image to the one Supreme Being.
As a tradition-loving child of the universe, I can tell you that El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (Epiphany) is a tradition that I treasure as a very joyous, happy childhood memory. One that I wish all children ought to experience. In our home, my mom would hide gifts all over the house (in those days it could have very well been a 1-room or 2-room home). One gift per child. We would all relish as she told us how Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar looked for “El Niño Diós” and that these three kings brought gifts to that Holy Child. And as such, it was our turn to find the one gift that los Reyes Magos brought to each of us kids.
She would set us off and we crazily and hurriedly tore the house apart trying to find our one gift (per child). If we were far from finding it, Mom would say, “Frío, Frío, Frío(You are cold, you are nowhere near).” If we were somewhat close, she would say, “Tíbio, Tíbio, Tíbio (You are lukewarm, kind of close but not really).” If we were very close to finding the gift, she would say, “Caliente, Caliente, te quema, te quema (You are hot…it’s about to burn you.” When we heard the latter, we would all run to the one that was hot, trying to beat that sibling to finding the gift first. Once we each found the one gift for each one of us, the rest was rejocing and playing with our brothers and sisters and our Mom.
It was a happy ruckus that I always cherish and somewhat miss. This memory holds a special place in my heart. The child within me jumps with joy at the opportunity of reliving it every year on the 6th of January, El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos, which my nephew refers to as the “Three Wise Men.”
Remy- what a wonderful account of your Tres Reyes Magos tradition! We don’t give the child within too many opportunities to jump with joy, do we? As they say in Puerto Rico- Ay bendito- that we can still remember. Gracias amiga mia.
I ordered the rosca de reyes yesterday at Panchitas on University Ave. I was the only person in the bakery and felt comfortable speaking Spanish. One of the bakers brought me a sample of the fruit pastes used in the rosca. I was unfamiliar with the term “ate” which means paste, but got the gist of the conversation as he pointed out ate de membrillo- quince, guayaba- guava and pera- pear. These pastes are chopped into small cubes and used inside the batter.