Sprachcaffe Magazine: Your travel blog for adventure travel and culture

Feliz Navidad from Spain

The Mass of the Rooster takes place on Christmas Eve and usually marks the beginning of street celebrations. Families usually gather on this evening to enjoy a meal and sing carols. Some crowds take to the streets after Midnight Mass with tambourines and zambombas, which is a traditional Christmas musical instrument. New Year’s Eve is also a large family celebration where everyone eats 12 grapes to bring in the New Year, each grape symbolising the strokes of midnight. The main celebration takes place during the Festival of the Three Wise Men on the 6th of January when the three Kings who visited Baby Jesus shower children with gifts. The presents are placed in a shoe on the windowsill while the Kings enjoy the glasses of cognac and "polvorones" left by the families.