In Mexico, children ask the Three Kings for health and coexistence

The Mexican children who visit the Pilgrimage of Mexico City these days have it clear: this year the Three Wise Men, in addition to the traditional gifts, they ask for a lot of health for all their relatives and wish, once and for all, the disappearance of the coronavirus.

“I only ask you to give me health and my family. (…) That my family is well all this year so that I can live with them more,” Judith Evelyn, a 10-year-old girl who attended, told Efe this Wednesday. Together with their parents to the so-called Romería de Reyes Magos, a Christmas space with food, toys and activities for the little ones.

And Judith unites the two wishes most mentioned by the little ones in this fair, to which hundreds of people come happily after a long and complicated time in which many children could not visit their grandparents, talk with their classmates or play with his cousins.

“(What I do) with my cousins ​​is to play and be together with my family,” says 8-year-old Jimena, who shyly shares that her family can finally get back together.

Since the coronavirus arrived in Mexico at the end of February 2020, family activities have been reduced due to the growing increase in cases and deaths.

And although Mexico has been characterized by not imposing very restrictive measures, the minors, accustomed to the intense family life that governs the country, had to change their habits and stop seeing many of their relatives.

Now, despite the arrival of the omicron variant in the country – where the first case was reported on December 3 – children can relive a little of the Christmas of yesteryear.

And the example is the Romería de Reyes Magos, which this year takes place on the esplanade in front of the emblematic Monument to the Revolution.

While a year ago, merchants protested the cancellation of the pilgrimage, which for many is one of the most significant entries of the year.

But in 2022 the fair has recovered its essence and today has more than twenty cubicles where attentive Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar are present.

Each of these spaces – in which the children can deliver the letter to their favorite king – is decorated differently. Some with the traditional nativity scene and others, more daring, with fashionable characters such as those emerged from “Pokémon” or “Frozen”.

In all of them there are long lines this day with families waiting to fulfill the wishes of the little ones.

Finally, the little ones were able to meet with Their Majesties, in whom they trust their greatest wishes and before whom they assure “they have been good” during the year so that they can give them their most desired toys.

Dolls, toy kitchens, remote-controlled cars, scooters or bicycles are some of the most coveted gifts.

But children finish their sentences by looking around and hoping that covid-19 does not ruin 2022 and they can have fun with their loved ones.

“Take good care of yourself and don’t give them the bug!”, Asks the Three Wise Men Greece, 8 years old, who walks with her brothers and her mother in search of a photograph with the kings that will remain to be remembered.

“I ask the Kings for the covid to go away,” completes his 9-year-old brother Gael.

While her sister Alexis, just 7, wishes her aunt, who suffers from heart disease, a speedy recovery. “And that we continue happy,” he added.

With neon lights, fairground games of all kinds, a giant slide and a little cold, when visiting this site it would seem – at first – that the pandemic had never passed through Mexico, which today adds almost 300,000 deaths and is the fifth country in the world by absolute number of deaths.

But adults and infants have it in mind: everyone puts antibacterial gel on their hands and no one walks without their mask.

“For Mexico I ask for health, for my family good luck and for me a remote control car that moves by hand,” 9-year-old Kevin perfectly sums up. (I)