Our First Posada

December 23rd, 2016

Let me begin by apologizing if I completely butcher the tradition of the Christmas Posada in Mexico. We were invited by our lovely neighbor Isis who speaks slightly more English than I do Spanish, so communicating more than the basics is "muy dificil" but we've become fast friends and she invited us to accompany her and her two girls to a party last Saturday evening in her brother's neighborhood. 

Interesting side note: The brother is not a blood related sibling. From what I can gather, he was adopted into her family's home as a young man when he was attending school here in Mazatlan and would come over to their house for meals. Her translation to English is to call him her "brother of love". 

Anyway, since we knew nothing about the Posada tradition, I had to get my information from Wikipedia. Here's what they had to say: 

Las Posadas is a novenario (nine days of religious observance) celebrated chiefly in Mexico and by Mexican-Americans in the United States,beginning December 16 and ending December 24.

Las Posadas is Spanish for lodging, or accommodation, which in this case refers to the inn in the story of the nativity of Jesus. It uses the plural form as the celebration lasts for a nine-day interval (called the novena) during the Christmas season. The novena represents the nine-month pregnancy of Mary, the mother of Jesus, celebrated by Christian traditions.

The ritual has been a tradition in Mexico for 400 years. Many Mexican holidays include dramatizations of original events, a tradition which has its roots in the ritual of Bible plays used to teach religious doctrine to a largely illiterate population in Europe as early as the 10th and 11th centuries. These plays lost favor with the Church as they became popularized with the addition of folk music and other non-religious elements, and were eventually banned; only to be re-introduced in the sixteenth century by two Spanish saints as the Christmas Pageant, a new kind of religious ceremony to accompany the Christmas holiday.


Our goal while we are here in Mexico is to immerse ourselves in the culture, language and traditions that surround us, and since our kids love parties and have grown quite fond of our lovely neighbors, we accepted the invitation immedietly without doing any of the reading that I have now done in order to post here on the blog. 

With that said, we arrived at this party where we knew no one and it was doubtful that anyone there spoke more English than Isis. Her brother Jose was very welcoming and friendly and spoke a little English, but I was definitely out of my comfort zone. His entire street was blocked off, with streamers strung between the buildings, a pinata hung from above, and there was even a bouncy house for the kids. (I love how family oriented everything is here. Having the kids at a party that would probably last late into the night was not uncommon at all.) Folding tables and chairs lined the street, and it resembled what we might call a "block party" in the States. There was even a karaoke/jute box type machine playing music and Kenton got in on a little karaoke action himself as the evening went on. 




I didn't take any pictures because I already felt like I stood out like a sore thumb (and for those of you who know me, being the center of attention is not really my forte.) It is times like these that really encourage me to dig in and study Spanish even more because not being able to communicate even basic things to those around me is frustrating to say the least. 

The food was delicious! Isis had prepared her "pickled Marlin" recipe that she had made for us when we first met, and there was also a new dish I had never tried that I was told in English was called "leather pork". I had attempted to make my favorite "no bake cookie" recipe from home, but because of the difference in the ingredients I had purchased here, they turned out dry and not the same as I'm used to. They seemed to be a hit with a couple of the kids there at least, and my kids pretty much ate them for dinner since they are reluctant to try new Mexican dishes. 

The pinatas (yes, there were more than one!) were obviouslythe highlight of the evening for our sugar loving kids, and they were even given another goody bag full of candy to take home with them when we left. Isis and I still did not get a picture together but we will one of these days! 

Here are some pictures that I was able to grab from Jose's facebook page:











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