Kings Day!!

Jan 6, 2020…

Malagueños adore fiestas and holidays, or really any excuse to leave work and go out with friends. During the holidays, the cafes are jammed with big holiday lunches that go on for hours, followed by another hour outside smoking and saying goodbye. Construction projects come to a standstill for weeks, and shop opening hours become just a hypothesis. This is one of the reasons we love Malaga.

Additionally, they stretch out the holiday season an extra week, until the very pinnacle, Kings Day, Dia de Reyes on the 6th of January. We’ve experienced this celebration from the edges before but this year, with Kent and Bob in town, we decided to jump in with both feet.

The Cavalcade

To fully appreciate the cavalcade, (their word) or parade, it’s best to secure good seats! At exactly noon on December 26, I was able to secure seats online in a prime section on the front row, and on the night of the parade, with the welcome input of every Malagueño within 50 yards, we found our seats.

I could go on and on about the costumes, the bands, the tons of candy thrown to the children (and us) from the floats but the very best part was when the mail carriers came marching in formation with their yellow mail carts and the crowd started cheering “cor-re-os! cor-re-os!” Then all the kids ran out with their letters to the kings, which the mail carriers put in their carts and then gave the kids candy. It was so adorable I could die just retelling it.

Correos!

Like all parades it got a bit long, but we escaped the crowd quickly, only to hit the parade again on the other side of the downtown area on the way home.

Next morning, everything was swept and washed, you never would have known 4 million pieces of candy had been thrown the night before.