Christmas in Mexico

Well, to begin we have almost a month of daily celebrations in December-January. From December 12^th to January 6^th this set of days is called Guadalupe-Reyes or just Lupe-Reyes, a Posada's Marathon. December 12^th  is the day of the holy virgin, (we Mexicans are like 98% Catholics) the day is called: El dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe. 

A beautiful story about an Indian and the virgin happened a few centuries ago… and we still remember.

"This story begins with an Indian called Juan Diego (now he’s a Saint), the year was 1531. This guy was in the middle of harvest in the hill of Tepeyac near the center of Mexico City. The holy Virgin appeared and talked to him. She asked him to tellthe high priestof that time to build a temple in that place. The priest didn’t believe Juan Diego at first so he needed a proof. The virgin asked Juan Diego to carry some flowers to the priest and to show them to him. When San Diego did this and the flowers fell from his cloak, the virgin made a miracle, she appeared as an image in San Diego’s cloak. The original cloak is now in La Basilica de Guadalupe in Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City. When this happened it was December 12^th 1531, the Virgin appeared 4 times to Juan Diego. In 1999 the Basilica of our Lady of Guadalupe was the most visited Catholic shrine in the world.

This is the image of Holy Virgin of Guadalupe. The Mother of all Mexicans".

An interesting fact of the face of the image, if you look closely to the eyes… you can see the Holy Virgin on them 0.o… AMAZING!!!

Every December 12^th, a lot of Mexicans come to sing Las Mañanitas to the virgin, all over the country… banda and mariachis never miss this day.

La Lomita. This church is one of the most popular in Culiacán, it’s at the top of a Hill. A great festival takes place surroinding this church at december 12^th =).

Next thing we have are the Posadas:

Posadas are just regular parties that happens from December 12^th to December 24^th. People gather together to sing Christmas songs, have fun, to eat tamales and atole.

Some of the songs people sing are:

Blanca Navidad, Pastores a Belen, Rodolfo el Reno, Noche de Paz, Posadas, etc… of course in Spanish. These songs are called Villancicos.

The most popular song we sing is: Posadas. This song is sang by two parts, one inside the house and the other is outside. People outside is asking for a place to stay in the night to the people inside. Like Mary and Joseph when Jesus was about to be born. A few times people inside will deny the entrance to the outsiders.

En nombre del cielo os pido posada,

pues no puede andar

mi esposa amada.

Aquí no es mesón

sigan adelante,

yo no puedo abrir

no sea algún tunante.

No seas inhumano,

tennos caridad,

que el Dios de los cielos

te lo premiara.

Ya se pueden ir

y no molestar

Porque si me enfado

los voy a apalear.

Mi esposa es Maria

es Reina del Cielo

y madre va a ser

del Divino Verbo

¿Eres tú Jose?

¿Tu esposa es Maria?

Entren, peregrinos

No los conocía.

In these parties we have Piñatas and Candies. On December 24th we have Noche Buena. During this night all family joins a great dinner. Usually is turkey, chicken and something ele. After midnight it’s officially Christmas so everybody hugs each other and we open some gifts, los Regalos de Navidad (Christmas presents).

Introducing... the Piñata

During the night, before Christmas,my family used to create a Pastorela. Pastorela is the representation of what happened the days when Jesus Christ was born.

We tell the story to kids that Santa is coming from North Pole (Rovaniemi, Northern Finland) to visit every kid to that behave nicely during the year. He comes with reindeers and comes down to the living room where the Christmas tree is. We put Pines to represent Christmas trees.

On December 25^th is Christmas. And again our family joins to a great breakfast when we have Menudo. And we call it: Recalentado. Usually, little kids use this day to show off the presents they had last night =P.

Menudo, a very Mexican Dish.

On December 30^th we have new years eve and again we celebrate with music, food and piñatas. After midnight we hug each other to celebrate the new year!!.

On January 6^th we have: El Dia de los Reyes MAgos. The day of wizard kings… supposedly the day when the 3 kings joined to meet the new messiah in Belen. This time we tell a story to kids… that those kings will come to visit good kids to deliver a gift in the Christmas tree.

In the night of that day we eat: La rosca de los Reyes (Kings Cake). Inside the cake we put a little doll. The one who gets the doll after splitting the cake, will have to organize a party and prepare tamales for El Dia de la Candelaria, the candlemas day.

Rosca de Reyes

Cheers!

Jonathan