Winter Traditions and Holidays Part 12 - Las Posadas

Las Posadas (mostly in Mexico beginning December 16 and ending December 24, on evenings)

• Mexican families participate in nightly processions that re-create Pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem
• The nine night represents the pregnancy of Mary.
• Many Mexican holidays include dramatizations of events, which is rooted in the ritual of Bible plays used to teach religious doctrine to a largely illiterate population in Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries.
• The Aztec winter solstice festival had traditionally been observed from December 7 to 26 as according to the Aztec calendar, their most important deity, the sun god Huitzilopochtli, was born in December).
• The parallel in time between this native celebration and the birth of the Christ lent itself to an almost seamless merging of the two holy days.
• Two people dress as Mary and Joseph and certain houses are the inn
• The head of the procession will have a candle.  At each house, the resident responds by singing a song and Mary and Joseph are finally recognized and allowed to enter
• Once the "innkeepers" let them in, the group of guests come into the home and kneel around the Nativity scene to pray
• The procession will be followed by musicians, with the entire procession singing.
• At the end of each night's journey, there will be Christmas carols, children will break open star-shaped piñatas to obtain candy and fruit hidden inside, and there will be a feast.