Cultura: Los Reyes Magos

Inaugurating this new cultural section we are going to talk about a touching Hispanic tradition, los Reyes Magos, also known in English as The three Kings or The three wise men. The countries that speak Spanish and embrace a similar culture have to face at the same time the particularities of each one. It can be positive if you see it as a part of the Hispanic culture diversity and help your students understand there are so many different types of celebrations out there and what sometimes they have been presented to is just one angle of the story. Hispanic Culture is diverse and global concepts are, sometimes and somehow, tricky if we want a general answer for all our questions.
Activity
A good activity to get your students started on Hispanic Culture, Diversity and Multiculturalism can be just a comparison among Hispanic Countries and their celebrations of the Three Kings. You can have your students searching different sites [or use the links provided underneath] to gather the information on three different countries and them use a diagram to write everything down and have a visual to help them see the big picture [see image below] at the same time they learn/review how to express similarities and differences.

Prueba a usar estructuras más complejas para comparar:

• Mientras que en Puerto Rico se pone pasto bajo la cama en una caja de zapatos

• Mientras que en Venezuela lo más importante es el pesebre en España lo más importante es la cabalgata.

• Tanto en Argentina como en Uruguay se pone pasto y agua para los camellos.

• En España lo mismo que en México se come el roscón de reyes.

• Los Reyes Magos no se celebran sólo en España sino también en muchos países de habla hispana como Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, México...
• En España los niños reciben regalos el 6 de enero como/igual que en México.

To help your students understand the big picture and practice similarities and differences you can use this diagram. Just change the name of the countries if you need it.

Anita's presentation: This is one of my student's work on Los Reyes Magos, it is amazing how synthetic and well organized they are by the time they reach their senior year. Enjoy her clear approach on the topic and use it as a general first presentation to introduce your class to this cultural celebration. 

Want to know more?

• Los Reyes Magos [Wikipedia]
• Curiosidades sobre los Reyes Magos [Huffington Post]
• Los Reyes Magos en Puerto Rico [El Boricua] [Primera Hora] [Los Reyes Magos de Juana Díaz] [Yo soy Mami]
• Los Reyes Magos en México [Directorio turístico] [México desconocido]
• Los Reyes Magos en España [Spain.info] [Don Quijote]
• Comparación de la celebración en diferentes países [Universia] [Casa América]
• Image source: http://www.clipart-gratis.com

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