Three Kings Day in Alcoy: an A1 story
Lucía in Alcoy writes to the Three Kings, watches pages carry packages up to balconies, and on 6 January finds a figurine in the roscón.
El Día de los Reyes
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About this article
What you'll learn
present tense, dates with el and de, family and festival vocabulary, the verb encontrar
Lucía wants a book of animals. In her house in Alcoy the big presents arrive on 6 January, so she writes to Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar. On the night of 5 January she watches the cabalgata, one of the oldest in Spain: the kings ride camels, and at some houses on the street pages climb ladders to the balconies with packages. At home she leaves shoes, carrots, water and bread. In the morning the book is on the shoes. At the table she finds the figurine in the roscón and wears the paper crown. Her father finds the bean.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
El seis de enero
newthe sixth of January, Three Kings Day
The full name is el Día de los Reyes Magos, but in everyday Spanish people just say Reyes: el día de Reyes, en Reyes, los regalos de Reyes.
The short form is what you will actually hear in Spain in January.
Los Reyes Magos
newthe Three Kings: Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar
Mago here is not a magician. It is the older sense, a wise man who reads the stars, which is why the tradition has them follow one.
In Spain these three, not Santa Claus, bring the presents.
la cabalgata
newthe parade of the Three Kings
Cabalgata comes from caballo, a horse, so the word is literally a ride. Towns hold theirs on the evening of the fifth.
The exact word for this parade and for no other.
roscón de Reyes
newthe ring-shaped sweet bread eaten on 6 January
Roscón comes from rosca, a ring. It is a ring of sweet bread with candied fruit on top and two things hidden inside it.
The one cake that belongs to this single day.
dejan sus zapatos
newthey leave their shoes out
Not stockings: Spanish children put out shoes and the kings fill them. Dejar means to leave something behind; to leave a place is salir or irse.
Dejar and salir are the pair that trips up every beginner.
más importante que la Navidad
newmore important than Christmas
The comparison is más + adjective + que. Watch that que: Spanish does not use de here, and never comparado con.
The basic comparison, stating something real about Spain.
Se van a dormir
newthey go off to sleep
It is irse a dormir, not ir a dormir: the se adds the sense of going off from where you are. Me voy a dormir is how you announce bedtime.
The everyday phrase for going to bed.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Presents
regalos
presents, gifts
Un regalo is a present. The verb is regalar, to give as a present: me regalan un libro, they give me a book.
The word the whole day turns on.
Sweets
caramelos
sweets, candy
Careful: un caramelo is any hard sweet, not only caramel. The English word covers far less ground than the Spanish one.
A false friend, and the kings throw them by the kilo.
Floats
carrozas
parade floats
Una carroza is a decorated float, or a horse-drawn coach. Notice the verb around it: llenarse de algo, to fill up with something.
You need it for any Spanish parade or fiesta.
Carrots
zanahorias
carrots
Zanahoria is one of the many Spanish words that came in from Arabic, like azúcar and aceite. Plural: zanahorias.
Left out for the camels, the way other countries leave one for a reindeer.
Camels
camellos
camels
The kings travel by camel, not by sleigh. Un camello has two humps; the one-humped animal is un dromedario.
The detail that makes the Spanish scene different from the northern one.
A broad bean
un haba
a broad bean
Haba is feminine, but it takes el and un because it begins with a stressed a: el haba, un haba, and then las habas. Same rule as el agua.
One of the few nouns whose article seems to disagree with its gender.
Toys
juguetes
toys
Un juguete comes from jugar, to play, just as un juego does. The u in juguete is silent and keeps the g hard.
The first thing on every letter to the kings.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Dates: el + number + de + month
el veinticinco de diciembre
the twenty-fifth of December
A Spanish date is el + a number + de + the month: el seis de enero, el veinticinco de diciembre. The number is the plain one you count with, seis and veinticinco, not sexto or vigesimoquinto, the month keeps a small letter, and el does the job of English on.
Every date you will ever say in Spanish follows this one pattern.
Recibir algo de alguien
reciben regalos de los Reyes Magos
they receive presents from the Three Kings
De marks where the thing comes from. The one who receives is the subject, los niños, so there is no indirect object here at all. Compare dar algo a alguien, where a marks the receiver.
De and a point in opposite directions, and learners swap them.
The relative que
un día que recuerdan toda su vida
a day they remember all their lives
Que covers English that, which, who and whom at once, for people and things alike, and Spanish never drops it: un día que recuerdan, never un día recuerdan.
English can leave that out; Spanish cannot.
Si + present, present
Si encuentras un haba, pagas el roscón
if you find a bean, you pay for the roscón
A real condition keeps both halves in the present indicative: si encuentras, pagas. No future and no subjunctive after this si. The tú here means anyone at the table.
The commonest conditional in spoken Spanish, and it needs no special forms.
Encontrar: o becomes ue
los reyes los encuentran
the kings find them
In the present tense the stressed o of encontrar turns into ue: encuentro, encuentras, encuentra, encuentran. Nosotros and vosotros keep the plain o: encontramos, encontráis. Other verbs change other vowels, and this text is full of them: recuerdan from recordar, cierran from cerrar (e to ie), piden from pedir (e to i).
A dictionary lists encontrar, so you have to recognise encuentras as the same verb. No other change hides so many words from a beginner.
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