rosca de reyes

i almost never get the chance to eat rosca on the 6th of january, either because i am not in mexico during the christmas holidays or because i am already gone by the 6th.

for those who don't know what it is, la rosca de reyes is the sort of bread you see in the picture, and we mexicans eat it on the 5th and 6th of january to celebrate the day of the three wise men or the three kings who arrived in israel from the far east to adore jesus.

this festivity is one of my favorite mexican holidays. you get together with friends and family and you have rosca and, if you are lucky, hot chocolate. i just love this combination. and it's not like christmas or new year's or even the posadas when you just stuff yourself with all the different delicious dishes people make. here, it's not really about the food but more about being together. the bread is good, especially the sugar-covered portions (people generally skip the parts with dried fruits, i don't know why they haven't added a yummier topping that people actually like), but it is not something you crave or something that people are nuts about. yet, i have met a lot of mexicans abroad who, like me, miss their rosca on the 6th.

my favorite part of this holiday, though, is how it highlights the mexican way of life. it's like mexicans haven't had enough of partying after the traditionally-9-but-in-practice-way-more days of posadas, then nochebuena (christmas eve), then christmas lunch and, to cap it off, new year's. no, we want more. we still don't want to go back to work or we want an excuse to leave early. rosca and hot chocolate are like dessert after a heavy dinner.

but the last straw, really, is the monito tradition. there are usually several little baby plastic figurines buried in the bread. each person cuts the piece of the rosca they want to eat and if they get the monito, they have to throw a party with tamales and atole on 2 february! yet another excuse to keep the celebrations going 3 weeks later!

by the way, i just learned what myrrh is! and if you are unfamiliar with christian tradition, this is one of the gifts that the three wise men offered jesus when they visited him at the manger in bethlehem.