Montclair church celebrates Three Kings Day with parade, live camels bringing the joy of the Epiphany (Photos/ video)

Immaculate Conception Church in Montclair celebrated Three Kings Day with a Kings Parade featuring live camels the day before the Feast of the Epiphany, on Jan. 7.

Hundreds of the faithful gathered in Montclair as the three kings — Anuraj Bismal as Gaspar (Casper), James Cornejo as Melchior, and Jose Pierre as Balthasar — walked their three camels (from Kafta Farms) down Church Street following a “star.” It was the first time Immaculate Conception Church celebrated Three Kings Day with a live celebration.

Father Amilcar Benito Prado, the parish’s pastor, said celebrating “Kings Day” is a large tradition in Latin American countries and Spain. As a child growing up in Nicaragua, Father Prado looked forward to celebrating Three Kings Day every year. He said that although Christmas is still a big holiday in his tradition, the gifts are not given on Dec. 25 — they are given on Jan. 6 because that is when “the kings brought the gifts to our Lord.”

From left, James Cornejo as Melchior, Jose Pierre as Balthasar and Anuraj Bismal as Gaspar exit Immaculate Conception Church to begin the parade on Jan. 7, 2023. (Photo: Archdiocese of Newark/Kate Albright)

But there are only a few commemorative Three Kings Day parades in the area. Locally, the largest and best-known one has been held in Harlem for over 45 years. Therefore, Father Prado said it was important to his parish to start a celebration of its own.

“We wanted to create something for the kids to educate them, to evangelize them, to know a little more about why we celebrate the Epiphany, which is the revelation, right? Jesus reveals himself to all,” Father Prado said. “And the kings followed the stars until they found the child and they brought these gifts. So all of us, somehow, we follow the star to encounter who the Lord is. And so having this prayer and having this celebration reminds us of who we are and what we are all about. And what this season’s all about.”

The Feast of the Epiphany, which is always held the Sunday after Jan. 1, marks the end of Christmas. In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the Epiphany celebrates the revelation to the Three Wise Men that Jesus was the Son of God. As told only in the Gospel of Matthew, they follow a star to search out and honor the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.Immaculate Conception’s Three Kings Day celebration was the brainchild of Montclair resident Obie Miranda-Woodley, who grew up in Puerto Rico, where Kings Day is a common celebration. When she moved from Puerto Rico to New York with her family, she continued her tradition by attending the parade in Harlem, she said.

She has also continued a childhood tradition on Kings’ Day Eve with her children.

“On the fifth of January, you put grass in a box and you get water and you put it under your bed for the camels, and the camels come and eat the grass and drink the water. And then (the kings) leave gifts,” Miranda-Woodley said.

Musicians lend a festive sound to the parade as attendees follow the three kings and their camels down North Fullerton Avenue on Jan. 7, 2023. (Photo: Archdiocese of Newark/Kate Albright)

But having an official Three Kings Day celebration in Montclair – where Miranda-Woodley has lived for the last 10 years – has been a dream of hers, so she devised the idea to bring the parades of her youth to her community. Her friend and parishioner June Raegner connected her with Father Prado, and the pastor loved the concept.

Those who attended the parade were equally enthused about the celebration.

Elizabeth Weston watched the parade with her 10-year-old daughter. Although she grew up Catholic, Weston said her family did not celebrate Three Kings Day. But she said all of the pieces to the Christmas story have meaning for her. Her mother passed on a tradition of buying little representations of the gifts from the three kings — gold, frankincense, and myrrh — at Christmas time

“The entire story behind all the different pieces of Christmas story are very meaningful to all of us,” Weston said. “I thought [the parade] was a really nice way to honor the traditions, the story, the meaning of it all.”

Followed by three camels, the three kings lead the parade down Church Street in Montclair on Jan. 7, 2023. (Photo: Archdiocese of Newark/Kate Albright)

Sarah Grande, who grew up in the Dominican Republic, said her family always celebrated Three Kings Day. But the parade in Montclair was the first Three Kings event she has attended after moving to the U.S.

“This is a very important tradition in our family,” Grande said. “We’ve never participated in an event like this here in the U.S., but back home we have always celebrated. So, we were very pleased to see that this town takes pride in celebrating Three Kings Day.”

Martin Studzinski told the crowd about the Biblical story of the Three Kings being guided by the star. Afterward, he told Jersey Catholic that he grew up in Germany, where Three Kings Day was celebrated with a blessing of the homes.

“When I was little, the tradition was that the youth used to go to the parish and they received a blessed chalk,” Studzinski said. “Then they visited all the neighborhood, all the neighbors, and they put down the blessings on their door.”

Home blessings are a Three Kings Day tradition because the magi came to the home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. To ask for God’s intercession, people write a blessing — 20+C+M+B+23 — with chalk over their doors. The “20” and the “23” stand for the year, and the letters are for the three wise men — Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.

“I think it’s important for the youth to keep the traditional life, to pass this on to the youth,” Studzinski said. “That’s why we’re doing it. At the end, you have to transmit the faith to the children.”

For more information about Immaculate Conception Church in Montclair, visit www.iccmontclair.org.

Jaimie Julia Winters is the editor of Jersey Catholic, Archdiocese of Newark.