January 6th was Epiphany, the day when, according to tradition, the Magi Kings visited Bethlehem. In the Spanish-speaking world, it is known as "Día de Reyes" (Day of the Kings). In Mexico it is observed by serving a pastry known as "Rosca de Reyes" (Ring of the Kings).
The day that I arrived in Mexico was the eve of "Día de Reyes". That evening Alejandro and I went out to a nearby bakery to buy a "rosca".
The bakeries all have the boxed "roscas" for sale. We ended up going to a couple of bakeries, but they were all sold out of the medium sized rings. So, we had to buy one of the large ones.
The stripes on the "rosca" are made of "ate", a sweet paste concocted from fruit and sugar.
Baked in the ring is a little figure of the "Niño Dios", the Baby Jesus. According to tradition, whoever gets the figure in his/her piece of "rosca" is supposed to provide "tamales" on the Feast of the Candelaria (known as Candlemas in English) on Febraury 2nd. However, most bakeries nowadays seem to bake more than one "Niño Dios" into the "rosca". There was a total of five figures in ours. I guess providing "tamales" has become a shared responsibility?
At suppertime that evening, we all cut into the ring. It was quite tasty. We each had more than one slice, and we consumed more than half of the pastry. We finished it off the next day at breakfast.
I did not get one of the figures in any of the slices that I ate. Whew! I don't have to worry about buying, or even worse, making tamales in February. Alejandro's dad, his sister and his nephew all got the Baby Jesus in their slices.
No comments:
Post a Comment