The Sacrilege of a Christian Holiday: Three Kings Day or Insurrection Day?

by Miguel Perez


Growing up as a child in my native Cuba, no day in the entire calendar was more special. Nothing came close. Not even my birthday could compare to the day the Three Wise Men left gifts under my bed every year.

Santa Claus did not come to my house. Like most other children in Latin America and Spain, I grew up receiving overnight gifts not from Santa on Christmas Day, but from the same Three Kings who visited the Baby Jesus in a Bethlehem manger. And it was on January 6, according to the Bible, the 12th day of Christmas — the day Christians celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.

So, to many U.S. Hispanics, they are much more than figurines in the Nativity mangers under our Christmas trees. They are Melchor, Gaspar and Balthazar, those three magical figures who rode camels and left us toys every year when we were kids.

And yet tragically, because of last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, because an American president tried to overturn the results of a free and fair election, January 6 has become a day that will live in infamy.

Read more: https://www.insidernj.com/sacrilege-christian-holiday-three-kings-day-insurrection-day/