Christmas Around the World: Mexico

Christmas in Mexico is a mixture of festivity and reverence. Beginning weeks before Christmas, puestos (market stalls) are set up in the town plazas. These puestos offer crafts of every imaginable sort, as well as foods and other seasonal items like orchids and poinsettia. Homes are decorated, and most people attend gatherings of friends and loved ones to celebrate the season.

The main public celebration of Christmas in Mexico is a beautiful reenactment of events leading immediately to Christ's birth. La Posada is a religious procession in which participants reenact the search for a room at an inn by Joseph and Mary before the birth of Chris by walking from house to house with figures or images of Joseph and Mary. Family and friends determine who will be innkeepers and who will be pilgrims. The pilgrims do the traveling from house to house, where the Innkeepers repeatedly turn them away, until they reach the house that has set up the alter and nativity scene. There they are welcomed. Because the pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem took nine days, the processions start nine days prior to Christmas. On Christmas Eve night, there is a midnight mass service, called la Misa Del Gallo (Rooster's Mass), where the churchgoers sing lullabies to Jesus.

Though some families in Mexico celebrate the story of Santa Claus, it is not the predominant custom. The red suit is echoed however, in the poinsettia flower, which has a brilliant red star-shaped bloom. The story of the origin of the poinsettia is a beautiful one. It is told that a young boy named Pablo was on his way to see the nativity scenes at church, but had nothing to leave as a gift by the manger. He picked plain green branches, and took them in, amid laughter and mocking of the other children. However, when he placed the branches near the manger, they began to bloom bright red flowers on each branch. That story reminds me of the song about the first Nightingale song. Both stories just warm my heart.

Despite less emphasis on Santa, Mexican kids are given presents on Christmas day. They are blindfolded, and they take a turn each trying to bust the clay decorated piñata that has been filled with small candy and prizes. The children scramble to recover as much candy as they can retrieve once the pinata has been busted open. Further, kids who have behaved themselves receive a gift from the Three Wise Men on January 6.

After we play "The Nightingale's Song" at home this Christmas, I may try to tell Pablo's story to show my children that it isn't what you give that counts, but with what kind of heart you give it that matters.

Sources:

http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/mexico.html

http://www.santas.net/mexicanchristmas.htm