Three Kings Day

It is celebrated every January 6

Many ask me,” Anita, why is Three Kings Day so important for you?” I smile and bow my head down like a child and simply state, “Its important to me because not only is it the day of my birth, that I also celebrate it with my community since I began this Chamber as a tool to engage those who are not Latino, but simply because it is part of my roots as a Puerto Rican catholic woman and a significant part of my culture during the Christmas Holidays.”

Every year since we opened our Chamber of Commerce, we have celebrated this day with our community. It is a time to celebrate the wise men that followed a bright star to kneel before the king of kings. But it is also part of giving. And so, one January 6 of 2009, at the then Tiffany’s Latin Restaurant up on the northside of Lakeland FL (owned at the time by Mr. Juan Sonera a retired NYC Police Officer) we decided to start the tradition within our Chamber members businesses. Celebrating Three Kings Day with food, music, children’s activities and of course the visit of The Three Kings giving away goodies to the children that attended our event that day. So, for the longest time now our Chamber has cultivated a culture of our key holiday for our local children and senior citizens, with celebrations throughout all of Polk County in some way or another.

This was a way for us to share with those who do not know of our holiday traditions to learn from them while also enjoying the meaning of them firsthand.

This January 8, 2022, the City of Winter Haven in collaboration with The Puerto Rican/Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Polk County will be bringing for the very first time the celebration of the “magi”, in other words, The Three Wise Men or The Three Kings to downtown Winter Haven for all its citizens to enjoy. We will host this in Winter Haven at the Central Park location, with music, vendors, giveaways for the kids of ALL nationalities and three very special guests. Baltazar, Melchor and Gaspar.