Las Posadas

Yesterday I mentioned something about Christmas and Baruc, the 6-year old, looked surprized and shouted "Christmas is tomorrow!?"

I use this anecdote to show that Christmas isn't quite as special here as it is for us Anglo-Saxons. Last night and this morning they were still selling tacos on the street and the campesinos still went to harvest their corn. Las Posadas is what redeems Navidad for me.

Nine days before Christmas groups of dedicated Catholics walk through the streets at night accompanied by a band and carrying statues of Joseph and Mary. With song they ask for posada, a place to stay at night. The pilgrims have their verses and the innkeepers theirs, the former asking and the latter rejecting. At the designated house the last verses change and the caseros let the pilgrims in. ¡Fiesta time! Tamales and atole for everyone (chapurrado is an atole/porridge made with corn dough and chocolate, frick man it's good).

The next day the parade begins at the house it ended at and continues to another one etc. for the rest of the week until Noche Buena. On Christmas Eve the pilgrims are admitted and placed in a Nativity scene with li'l baby Cristo. ¡Más tamales!

Tomás and I only caught up with the pilgrims on the 23rd after they had already settled in for the night. Yesterday we went again and because Tomás is such a charismatic flirt the old lady who has been running the posada for 32 years asked him to carry the statues. "Que tu Güerito te ayude, también." So I found myself walking solemnly through the streets of Tepetlixpa carrying a table with statues of Joseph and Mary while 35 Mexicans surrounded us singing carols and launching firecrackers. I had written the words to the main song (see below) but I could hardly sing because I lost my voice in the bacterial beetle-battle in my throat.

Check out the drums of tamales they're cooking for the pilgrims. Those are two barrels plus a pot twice the size of the biggest one we have. All that for about 35 people.