Saturday, January 5, 2019

Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos

The big parade celebrating the three kings wound its way around Sevilla today for 6 hours. According to accounts on the web, around 90 tons of candy will be tossed from over 30 floats. The cavalcade went down our main street, and they were not lying about the candy. Buildings and balconies in our neighborhood were decorated with balloons for the occasion:


Crowds started building along the route:


Even on the bridge:


Here's a panorama of the part of the crowd we were in:


They approached from the bridge:


The black-faced Bedouins distributed candy:


I have videos of people tossing massive amounts of candy from floats, but it's still uploading. EDIT: Here's the video:


Marching bands played popular songs that really got the crowds going:



Standing under the shower of candy was like being in a hailstorm--a bit nerve-wracking. There was so much candy, it just lay unclaimed at our feet:


And crushed by the tires of the passing floats:


Bringing up the rear of the cavalcade were the street sweepers doing their best to clean up all that sticky candy. I can't imagine what this would be like if it rained:


EDIT: Here's the video of the street sweepers bringing up the rear:



Here's Rachel's haul. Halloween in January:


Then, to add to the booty, Palma and Mario dropped off a traditional pastry:




It's a cream filled ring. Somewhere in the ring is a small toy and somewhere else is a bean. If you get the toy in your slice, it's good luck. If you get the bean, maybe not so good. Rachel's piece had the toy. No one got the bean yet:


There was also a paper crown in the pastry:



They do love their processions, parades and cavalcades here. It's fun to be a part of it.