BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The Three Wise Men of Biblical tradition arrived in Bethlehem a day later than normal Sunday for ArtsQuest’s 12th annual celebration of Three Kings Day.
On Jan. 6, Three Kings Day, or Dia de los Reyes, celebrates the day when the Three Wise Men bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh are said to have visited the baby Jesus.
ArtsQuest’s kid-focused celebration of the traditionally Latin American holiday took place a day after the traditional holiday this year, with families filling the ArtsQuest Center in South Bethlehem on Sunday.
“The snow has hurt us. But the people here will still have a great time enjoying the food, the music and the gifts that the kids take home. So it'll be a much smaller crowd, but it'll be a happy crowd.”Myrna Rivera, Three Kings Day event organizer and ArtsQuest board member
Heavy snow on Saturday meant smaller-than-usual crowds for Three Kings Day, event organizer and ArtsQuest board member Myrna Rivera said.
“The snow has hurt us,” Rivera said. “But the people here will still have a great time enjoying the food, the music and the gifts that the kids take home.
"So it'll be a much smaller crowd, but it'll be a happy crowd.”
Families in attendance found an arts-and-crafts area on the ArtsQuest Center’s second floor. Up a level, live bands performed parranda music while members of Holy Infancy church sold Puerto Rican food, such as pernil and arroz con gandules.
'Memory of bringing us all together'
Later, the Wise Men made an appearance, accompanied by a camel named Einstein. They read the gathered crowd the story of the Three Magi and their trip to a different, less snowy Bethlehem.
In the gift-giving spirit of the holiday, children younger than 12 received a small toy.
For Rivera, Three Kings Day “has been a tradition dating back since I was an infant,” she said. “That memory of bringing us all together just stayed alive with me.”
“I celebrated Three Kings [Day] when I was young, and so I wanted to bring her down to do that as well. It’s way better now than it was when I was little. More people can get involved in it and see what our culture is like.”Bethlehem resident Kathy Pacheco
Today, Rivera oversees the festival with her daughter, Monica Werkheiser. Her experience passing on her Puerto Rican culture to her daughter is an encapsulation of the ArtsQuest celebration’s broader goal.
“The main reason is to keep the culture alive to teach the younger kids about our traditions, you know, with the three kings — the foods that we ate, the music that we danced to, that we sing to at Christmas — just to keep those traditions alive in their minds,” Rivera said.
Bethlehem resident Kathy Pacheco said she brought her daughter, Ruby, to SteelStacks on Sunday for much the same reason.
“I celebrated Three Kings [Day] when I was young, and so I wanted to bring her down to do that as well,” Pacheco said. “It’s way better now than it was when I was little.
"More people can get involved in it and see what our culture is like.”
