The majority culture in Mexico is not evangelical. This time of the year, many different customs and traditions are celebrated by the Catholic church, the most famous of them being posadas. I'm going to include a bit of a document I wrote several years ago, reflecting on this. See below.
Last night the whole family saw The Hobbit. I loved it, we all loved it. I was a bit skeptical when I heard that one novel was being stretched into three movies, but now we all can't wait to see the next one!
A very Merry Christmas to all, and may we all try to comprehend, even just a little bit deeper, what it meant for the Creator of the Universe to become a baby.
Below...a pic of the family opening some Christmas gifts this morning sent by their grandparents in PA. Thanks so much, mom and dad!
Christmas in Mexico
Despite many
years spent in Mexico during the Christmas season, I find myself surprised. I
know there are many rituals connected to Christmas in Mexico. And I know that
many of those rituals can be linked directly to the Catholic church; but this
year, I have learned there are some practices that have roots predating even
the Catholic conquest.
We were for
the first time in my experience here, invited to a full-fledged Posada,
organized by our 23-house community. Earlier in the day on the radio I heard
the announcer touting the uniqueness of this custom. Apparently, it is done
nowhere else, at least not quite like it is done here. The reason why I have
not been a part of this custom up to this point is that it is also a very
Catholic tradition. It is, essentially, the reenactment of Joseph and
Mary’s quest to find lodging in Bethlehem, only to be denied, until finally
setting in a manger for the night. There are other aspects involved to, which I
will mention.
Two people play the roles of Joseph and Mary, and the whole
group follows them, arriving at various predetermined houses, where entrance to
the house is denied. Finally, at the last house Joseph and Mary are received,
and the whole entourage enjoys ponche, a special fruity Christmas punch,
colación (candy) and most times a pretty
spectacular meal. The children enjoy a piñata (often times more than one) after
the meal, or sometimes even before the meal. This is the most common enactment
of the posada. It begins and ends in one
evening.
Normally, people take advantage of the posada time as a very
good excuse to have a party. Mexicans
generally take advantage of even bad excuses to have parties…people here are
always having parties and shooting rockets and fireworks into the air. But now I know, a real posada is something
much more extensive and serious. An authentic posada happens every night for
nine consecutive nights, culminating on Christmas Eve. Every night during this
time, a letanía, or litany, is chanted during the walk around the block. I have
in front of me a little booklet entitled, Antigua novena para posadas. On one of the pages, the Letanía a la
Santísima Virgen María is written out in two columns. After beginning with a
few titles about the trinity written in Latin, the litany mentions 50 titles of
the Virgin Mary, including: Holy Mother of God, Virgin Worthy of Worship, Queen
Conceived Without Original Sin, Refuge of Sinners and Cause of Our Joy.
During the
posada a miniature nativity scene with the personalities of Joseph and Mary are
also carried around. During the last night of the posada–Christmas Eve–a
figurine of the Baby Jesus is “arrullado”.
The best translation for this would be “sung a lullaby”. The baby Jesus
is sung to, and then placed in the manger to awake there on Christmas day. This
ceramic baby, anywhere from 6-12 inches long, is worshipped as he is placed in
the manger. It was always curious to me why no evangelical Christian family
that I ever met had a nativity scene in their home. This is the reason. As hard to believe as it may be in our
materialist western world, people actually worship this little Jesus doll.
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