Written by Katie Llanos-Small

Katie Llanos-Small is the founding editor of foreign-correspondence.com. She graduated from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) in 2005, with a degree in Political Studies and Latin American Studies. She also studied Chinese (Mandarin) and Arabic at university. Recently Katie spent a year studying advanced Spanish and teaching English in Madrid. Currently she is studying towards a Graduate Diploma of Journalism from the Auckland University of Technology. Her main areas of interest include global migration and refugee issues and the politics of underdevelopment.

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On the road to Bethlehem

By Katie Llanos-Small, December 14th, 2006

Suppose the three wise men were making their journey today?

On the road to Bethlehem

On this subject, the Christmas markets are in full bloom over here. Yes, the streets ands shops are chokka with people buying presents. But the Christmas markets supply almost exclusively Christmas decorations, and mainly pieces for the “Belen”. This is a little model of the nativity scene that many families set up in their home. And some are not so little, it would seem, given the massive and elaborate figures that are for sale in the markets (including slabs of wood for the stable).

Christmas in Spain is rather different to that in New Zealand. Well, they eat seafood for Christmas dinner, so I guess that’s one similarity. But Christmas dinner is served on the evening of the 24th of December. Global influences are making it more common for presents to be exchanged on the 25th of December, but the main, traditional day for this is the 6th of January - the day of the Three Kings (Three Wise Men) and, I believe, the 12th day of Christmas.

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