After his Angelus prayer on Jan. 6 at the Vatican, Pope Francis greeted all participants of the Three Kings Parade, saying: “I also extend my thoughts to the ‘Parade of the Three Kings’ taking place in so many towns and villages in Poland today.”
The motto of this year’s Three Kings Parade was “Let us follow the star.” According to the organizers: “The star prompted the Wise Men from the East to set out on their journey. Each of us needs good guides to point us in the right direction on the way to Christ.”
“This year, 753 Three Kings parades were reported in Poland and a dozen or so in Germany, the U.K., France, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Zambia,” said Piotr Giertych, chairman of the board of the Three Kings Parade Foundation. The parade gathers nearly 2 million people every year, he said, “1 million on the streets and another million in front of their TV sets.”
Special words of appreciation and gratitude were addressed to the participants and organizers of the parades by Polish President Andrzej Duda. He stressed that these events contribute to reviving and popularizing Polish Nativity and carol traditions in the 21st century and thus strengthen the identity and family ties of those who boldly manifest their Christian faith in the streets and squares of Polish cities.
The event was accompanied by a fundraiser for a vocational school in Nairobi, Kenya, located next to the world’s largest slum.
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