How to celebrate a Mexican style Christmas
Mexican Christmas is still tinted with an old world charm and is a time for families to get together and celebrate the birth of Christ.
Not only do the Mexicans celebrate the birth of the Lord with total panache, they have lent the whole festival a local color in true indomitable Mexican style. Mexicans are very warm people and do not believe in doing anything by halves. Christmas also seems, bigger, brighter and better in Mexico than in many other staunch Catholic nations.
Many weeks before Christmas actually arrives, richly bedecked puestos (market stalls) are set up in the plazas of towns and cities and many people travel for days from remote areas to get to these markets. Here are some handy hints to celebrate Christmas Mexican style.
A few suggestions
- Join in the ‘La Posadas,’ perhaps the most delightful and unique of all Mexican traditions. Beginning December 16th, it commemorates the events in the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It ends on December 24th, which is also called the Noche Buena or Holy Night.
- Put up a Nativity scene in your home and enact the whole sequence with everyone’s help. You could even involve your guests and neighbors in performing the whole sequence of events leading to the birth of Jesus.
- Later hold a party for the children complete with a Piñata which is a paper or ceramic pot filled with peanuts in their shells, oranges, tangerines, sugar canes. Children are blindfolded while they try to strike and break the pot to have the goodies scatter which they run to collect.
- On Noche Buena, December 24, attend the midnight mass. Later invite friends and family to partake of the Christmas dinner with you.
- Do not exchange presents on that day because the Mexicans believe Christmas is a celebration of Life of Our Savior. Have the celebration of receiving presents on January 6th, ‘el día de Reyes’, the day of the Kings. The Magi bring the toys to the boys and girls who have been good. The children place their shoes by the window, so the Magi place the present in the shoe.
Do’s
- Have fun and bask in the joy of togetherness.
- Wish everyone ‘Feliz Navidad’ or Merry Christmas.
Don’ts
- Do not forget to place the Baby Jesus in the manger in the Nativity scene.
cccccccccooooooooooooooooooooooolllllll:)
December 12th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
i am mexican not all maexicans do this my mexican doesn”t do this but in my family u do!:)
December 12th, 2007 at 8:01 pm