On Feb. 11, students gathered on the eighth floor of Walker Building to take turns cutting a Rosca de Reyes—a Spanish ring-shaped cake—hoping to find a small figurine depicting Baby Jesus. According to tradition, whoever finds a figurine is blessed with a year’s worth of luck, as well as tasked with preparing the food for next year’s tradition.

Hosted by the Department of Communication Studies, the event was a celebration of Three Kings Day, a Catholic holiday that is often overlooked in the U.S. It commemorates the day the Magi visited baby Jesus and is typically celebrated on Jan. 6, but the event was delayed to allow students and faculty to settle after winter break. 

Gregory Payne, the department’s chair, believes that sharing food is an essential form of communication, as it allows people of different cultures to easily connect. 

“The first day I arrived [at Emerson] in 1984, I took pizza to my class. It’s always been a vital part of my pedagogy,” Payne said in an interview with The Beacon. “When I’ve done summer programs with some of the inner-city schools, what I’ve found is that students often come to those workshops hungry, so I always try to bring some type of breakfast food.”

Sharing food has always been part of Payne’s approach as an educator. Growing up on a farm in southern Illinois, Payne saw how his mother would always bring pies and cakes to greet people. As he later learned, his mother was engaging in gastrodiplomacy—using food to build diplomatic connections—a tactic she had in common with many world leaders today.

The communication studies department holds many events where students can stop by the eighth floor to grab food and mingle. The day before, on Feb. 10, the department served over 200 dumplings for a Lunar New Year event. On Feb. 12, a Valentine’s Day event was held where students can grab chocolates and other sweets. Payne is particularly proud of the “Counter the Cold with a Hot Dog” event the department held on Jan. 28, during which they served nearly 200 franks.

“I would like for this to be a floor that, regardless of your major, you can always come up and have something to eat,” Payne said. “As chair of [the Department of Communication Studies], it’s important for us to find ways to bring people together, especially on a campus that really doesn’t have a union or central quad.”

Claudia Comas, a graduate sports communication student, visits the communication studies department frequently because of these events, and the allure of free food. She was asked to lead the Three Kings Day festivity by inviting everyone to a slice of the rosca.

“There’s always a reason to celebrate on the eighth floor,” Comas said. “There’s always people here, and there’s always food here. You can just come up whenever—if you’re hungry, if you’re bored, if you need to do homework, or if you want to talk to someone.”

Comas lived in Puerto Rico for most of her life, where she practiced her Catholic faith through traditions like Three Kings Day. While moving internationally (she studied abroad in Spain and Washington, D.C. before coming to Boston) she participated in many Catholic celebrations, studying the different traditions in new places.

“Even though [the U.S. and Spain] are both Catholic countries, we celebrate differently. It’s really interesting to see the things they pay more attention to and the things we pay more attention to,” Comas said. “So it’s nice that the department supports not just American celebrations, but other ones as well.”

Evelyn Alumbreros, a senior musical theater student whose family is Spanish, claims that Three Kings Day is a “way bigger” holiday than Christmas in Spain. But despite having celebrated for many years, she was never the one to find Baby Jesus—until today.

“I’m excited to have good luck for the year,” Alumbreros said. “I mean, I saw the legs popping out, so I knew it was in my direction. But I feel great.”

Alumbreros typically celebrates with her family, but this year, because she arrived in Boston early, she celebrated alone on Jan. 6. The event held by the Department of Communication Studies let her partake in a tradition that represents a big part of her culture, while sharing the moment with others.

“[Three Kings Day] always felt like a very intimate celebration with just my family and I, but in Spain, where my family is from, that’s their big holiday. So I wish more people [in the U.S.] knew about it,” Alumbreros said. “When I saw an email yesterday saying they were going to have rosca, I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I want that so badly.’”