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Latino Families Keeping Three Kings Day Tradition Alive

According to the gospel of Matthew, three Magi, or Wise Men —Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar —followed a star across the desert for 12 days to Bethlehem to find the baby Jesus and bring him gifts

Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz still remembers the excitement of being a child in Puerto Rico, anticipating the arrival of the Three Kings on Jan. 6th.

“We’d pick up grass for the camels to eat in exchange for gifts,” Acevedo-Muñoz, now a professor in University of Colorado-Boulder's Department of Cinematic Studies and Moving Image Arts, told NBC News. “Then we’d put in a box and leave it under our Christmas tree, and our parents would come and take the grass to give us the illusion that the Three Wise Men came.”

For Acevedo-Muñoz, picking the grass on the eve of Three Kings Day was “the most memorable practice” of the holiday.

Though the holiday’s traditions vary among cultures and nationalities, many Latino families across the U.S. are maintaining a tradition popular in Spain and Latin American countries. Epiphany commemorates the biblical story of the birth of Jesus Christ. According to the gospel of Matthew, three Magi, or Wise Men —Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar —followed a star across the desert for 12 days to Bethlehem to find the baby Jesus and bring him gifts.

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