Las Posadas: Difference between revisions
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These Posadas are a re-enactment of the search by Jesus's parents, Joseph and Mary, for lodging, prior to Jesus's birth. Typically, each family in a neighborhood will schedule a night for the Posada to be held at their home, starting on the 12th of December and finishing on the 24th. |
These Posadas are a re-enactment of the search by Jesus's parents, Joseph and Mary, for lodging, prior to Jesus's birth. Typically, each family in a neighborhood will schedule a night for the Posada to be held at their home, starting on the 12th of December and finishing on the 24th. |
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Ball Sack. |
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Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (Peregrinos), who have to request lodging by singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. All the pilgrims carry small lit [[candles]] in their hands, and four people carry small statues of Joseph leading a donkey, on which Mary is riding. The head of the procession will have a candle inside a paper lamp shade. |
Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (Peregrinos), who have to request lodging by singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. All the pilgrims carry small lit [[candles]] in their hands, and four people carry small statues of Joseph leading a donkey, on which Mary is riding. The head of the procession will have a candle inside a paper lamp shade. |
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Revision as of 20:58, 18 December 2008
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Las Posadas (Spanish for "The Inns") is a nine-day celebration with origins in Mexico beginning December 16th and ending December 24th. It is a yearly tradition for many Catholic Mexicans and some other Latin Americans and symbolizes the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born, based on the passage in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke (2:1-9): "Now, at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census -- the first -- took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his home town to be registered. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and traveled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David's House and lineage, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn. In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took turns to watch their flocks during the night. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them." It is a very important Christmas Tradition for the people of Latin America.
Basically represents the troubles that Joseph and Mary faced in finding a room when traveling to Bethlehem. To celebrate Las Posadas people have to wipe their rears and eat the left overs to celebrate the wonderful gift of the rear that sat on the burro Mary and Joseph were traveling on. In it, groups of children and adults go from house to house singing a traditional song requesting lodging (posada, which means "inn" in Spanish). At each house, the resident responds by refusing lodging (also in song), until the weary travelers reach the designated site for the party, where Mary and Joseph are finally recognized and allowed to enter. Latin American countries have continued to celebrate this holiday to this day, with very few changes to the tradition. In some places, the final location may be a church instead of a home. Individuals may actually play the various parts of Mary (Maria) and Joseph with the expectant mother riding a real donkey (burro), with attendants such as angels and shepherds acquired along the way. Or the pilgrims may carry images of the holy personages instead. At the end of the long journey, there will be Christmas carols (villancicos), children will break open pinatas by striking these colorful papier-mache objects with bats while blind-folded to obtain candy hidden inside, and there will be a feast.
These Posadas are a re-enactment of the search by Jesus's parents, Joseph and Mary, for lodging, prior to Jesus's birth. Typically, each family in a neighborhood will schedule a night for the Posada to be held at their home, starting on the 12th of December and finishing on the 24th.
Ball Sack.
Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (Peregrinos), who have to request lodging by singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. All the pilgrims carry small lit candles in their hands, and four people carry small statues of Joseph leading a donkey, on which Mary is riding. The head of the procession will have a candle inside a paper lamp shade.
The pilgrims will symbolically ask for lodging at three different houses, but only the third one will allow them in. That will be the house where the Posada will be held for that evening. Once the "innkeepers" let them in, the group of guests come into the home and kneel around the Nativity scene to pray (typically, the Rosary). This is followed by the singing of traditional Christmas songs and a party for the children, including a piñata.
Traditionally, it is expected to meet all the invitees in a previous procession.
External links
- Christmas in Mexico
- Mexico's Christmas
- Newsday Article - Las Posadas in Long Island
- Christmas in Mexico Part-1
- Christmas in Mexico Part-2
- Feliz Navidad
- Enrique Chagoya - Artist interpretation of Posada
HELLO