Long Beach Community Comes Together For Three Kings Celebration

LONG BEACH, NY. — Tuesday was Three Kings’ Day, also known as the twelfth day of Christmas or the Feast of the Epiphany, a Christian holiday commemorating the day that the three “wise men” of the Bible arrived in a manger to visit the newborn baby Jesus. At Long Beach’s St. John’s Lutheran Church By The Sea, the feast day was commemorated with a community celebration, organized in tandem with the Long Beach Latino Civic Association.

The celebration began at 6 p.m. with a church service, featuring readings in English and Spanish. The church was adorned with a Christmas tree, poinsettias, wreaths, a nativity scene and dozens of donated gifts, all covered in sheets for the duration of the service to prevent from distracting children.

During the service, children from the congregation who had volunteered to be part of the celebration walked through the center aisle of the church and up to the altar, where they sat until its conclusion. Their costumes, church officials noted, had first been put together in the 1970s, and had seen about 50 Three Kings Day celebrations.

Among the attendees Tuesday night was Judy Arroyo, a Long Beach Police Department sergeant who also attended last year’s celebration. For Arroyo, the event was a good opportunity to connect with a community in the city she serves.

“It’s good for people to see my face and know, if they see me out and about, ‘I can talk to her.’ It’s also a big, important religious night,’” Arroyo said.

When asked what she was most looking forward to during the service, Arroyo gestured to the row of pews behind her, filled with children singing and joking as they waited in costume for the festivities to begin.

“Do you hear that?” Arroyo asked. “There’s your answer.”

During the service, attendees heard a homily in which the preacher urged them to live in the moment, remember how it felt like Christmas “came and went,” and take note of how much of a blessing nights like Tuesday are.

“It’s a blessing when we come here to celebrate this,” the preacher said. “While the rest of the world was so ready to move on, we celebrate those 12 days of the Christmas season.”

When the time came for children to line up and walk to the altar to select gifts, the youngsters in the church lined up in order from youngest to oldest, with each kid being able to take two gifts from the donations on the altar. Helping distribute the gifts were students from Long Beach High School’s National Honors Society program, including Ethan Rodrigues, a senior at Long Beach.

To Rodrigues, what made the night special was simple.

“It’s a church event where we get to give toys to kids,” Rodrigues said.

And as for the kids, there was an orderly line all the way to the back of the church, made up of children eager to select their gift. When their time came, each one was able to make their pick.