Yesterday the controversy arose when the news was known that two neighborhoods in Madrid, Vallecas and San Blas-Canillejas, which have always organized their own and parallel rides to the "main", have decided that this year one of the kings is a woman. "What a novelty" some will say, always King Baltasar has been represented by some "white", but it is not about that, the subject is much more complicated.
This year, in Madrid there will be two kings and a magician queen for the first time in history (to our knowledge) and now How do I explain to my children that there will be a queen on the ride?
Well yes, the controversy is served and it is that as confirmed yesterday City of Madrid This year some horseback riding will have female representation in style and of course, has not left anyone indifferent.
Cavalcade of Kings 2.0 or update tradition?
It is not clear to me if what is intended is to create a new type of event or it is simply, in my view, a clumsy attempt to bring a tradition more than a thousand years old to the 21st century.
Whether or not there are queens on the ride I do not think it will matter to children, which in this case is to whom the event is aimed. The problem is that it is the representation of a supposedly historical fact, that is, here we are not talking about management councils, work environments, sports or any other situation in which women are discriminated against. It is supposed to represent a scene that happened more than 2000 years ago in which three magicians, astronomers, wise men or whatever you want to call them went to a rickety manger to worship who they considered their God incarnate.
The legend dates from the 5th century, and it is that at that time, society was eminently patriarchal and it is certainly very unlikely that there were women who were dedicated to astrology and therefore there were three men who came to the portal.
If you brought gifts, gold and precious stones or simply brought your best wishes, if there were three, twelve or three hundred I don't think we know for sure. For some it is nothing more than a myth, for others word of God. What is clear is that this story became a tradition that has come as a representation to this day. And the story tells that they were men and unfortunately women do not appear, and they do not do it for what that society was like in those times, but that does not mean that we can rewrite those years again. Our job is to change and move towards an egalitarian society, that is better than that in all its aspects, but I do not believe that, wanting to rewrite traditions, we will achieve much.
The problem is not children, but to maintain the traditions and religious beliefs of each
That the wise men are three men I do not see that I accept society, in the same way that I would not do it if they were three women and of course for my children I would not care if they were three monkeys or three elephants. What they believe in is the magic of Christmas, in which the morning of kings will rise and there will be gifts for them, immense mountains of gifts or perhaps only one, which will have been brought by magical beings to their living room.
We can tell you thousands of things because the problem is not in the vision of children, but in what the wise men represent in the Christian tradition, which we may like more or less, agree or disagree with religion, but if we talk about respecting the beliefs of others, what we cannot do is modify their traditions unilaterally.
The Christmas party occupies the place it once had winter solstice celebration, we can celebrate that if we want, we can propose to the municipalities that make the change or that they simply leave room for the new celebrations, but I think that this type of action is a mistake, although they go with the best of intentions. Let's not forget that Christmas is celebrated differently in many parts of the world.
Will they be Melchora, Gaspara and Baltasara or do we put others? Will it come from pink?
It has not yet transcended the name of the queen who will go on the ride and I recognize that at first I thought "I hope they do not use the same names in the female version" and it is that, mea culpa, I thought there were no such names although with a simple search I saw that I was very wrong: Melchora, Gaspara and Baltasara They exist as such, I think I stay with Melchora, although I don't like any. But have they already thought about what name they will give it?
What I do expect and I strongly urge the town hall, please, Don't decorate the pink float. If what we want is to promote the presence of women, let's do it well and eliminate that useless tradition of girls in pink and boys in blue.
How to tell them that today they are queens and not kings?
We can now tell you that the wise men are not Melchior Caspar and Balthazar, but there are also his female versions. We can tell you that it is the women of the wise men who have also come to distribute gifts, every child knows that there are kings and queens, this I do not think is a problem for them.
Perhaps there are children who ask for their gifts to a certain king and that coincides that year does not appear on the ride, which in principle could be a cause for concern we could solve it as in the previous point. "It's okay, honey, I'm sure your king told her at dinner (while giving her a sore shoulder massage for throwing so much candy)."
We can also take them to see other horseback riding more traditions or take the opportunity to tell them the truth, that and everyone in their house that decides.
Gloria Fuertes already had the same idea some time ago
Again around mea culpa, in this case with the work of who has been one of the greatest of children's literature in our country, Gloria Fuertes and it seems that she already had a long idea and reflected it in one of her stories. We will have to read it.
What do you think of the initiative of these districts?
