Its December and you know what that means. Its Christmas time, the greatest time of the year. Whether it be hot chocolate while doing your World of Warcraft dailies, or having a Christmas dinner with friends and family, or if you open up presents under a tree that you decorated just for the occasion. However, have you wondered what Christmas is like in other places? Me neither, but lets talk about how the Mexicans celebrate Christmas. They incorporate the very bare essence of the Catholic Christmas traditions and add the spin of their own unique culture to make a very unique Christmas celebration.
Have you ever wanted Christmas to last longer than a single day, well Christmas in Mexico decided that one day was not enough, so Christmas is celebrated from the 12th of December, to the 2nd of February. They hold a celebration called the Posada which illustrates the travel of Mary and Joesph trying to find an inn for the coming of the baby Jesus. On the final Posada (the ninth one held on Christmas Eve) the baby Jesus is placed into the manger and then the community goes to midnight mass in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. There is also a special name for the midnight mass, it is called the misa de gallor or the mass of the rooster, where they sing lullabies to the baby Jesus.
Besides actual Christmas, there is also a holiday celebrated on the 28th of December. The Los santo inocentres or the Day of the Innocent Saints remembers when king Herod slaughtered countless babies in search of the baby Jesus.
There is one main difference in Mexican Christmas to an Americanized Christmas, and that is the children receive their presents on the Epiphany or the 6th of January. The presents are brought by the baby Jesus or by Santa Clause. Speaking of the baby Jesus, the Mexican Christmas also has the eating of the roscas. the Roscas is a sweet bread where a plastic figurine of the baby Jesus is placed inside. This symbolizes the need to hide Jesus from King Herod who actively sought to kill Jesus. The knife that everyone cuts the roscas with symbolizes the danger Jesus was in during his birth.
The Christmas season ends on the 2nd of February where the Nativity is put away and there is one final dinner to commemorate the end of the Christmas season.
That's the end of this blog, Merry Christmas to all of you.
Sources
http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/mexico.shtml
http://www.santas.net/mexicanchristmas.htm
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