Historically, the Aztecs annually celebrated the birth of their supreme god, Huizilopochtli, the deity of fire, sun, and war, between the 7th and 26th of December. Then, in the late 1500's, the Spanish Augustinian and Franciscan priests, in order to evangelize, to teach, and to control the indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, incorporated some of those days, December 16- December 24, into a novena, nine days of prayer. Over time, that novena evolved, moving from the church into a community-based festival reenacting the nativity.

That nine day festival, Las Posadas, part religious and part social celebration, to the present day, is conducted throughout Mexico, particularly in its small villages and towns- with some local and regional variations. Now a Mexican tradition, Las Posadas, meaning “inn” or “shelter,” is the Catholic community’s annual reenactment of the peregrinos’/pilgrims’, San Jose’s/Joseph’s and La Virgen Maria’s/the Virgin Mary’s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and their quest for lodging just prior to the birth of Christ. Those nine nights of posadas, 12/16-24, are said to represent either the nine days of the journey to Bethlehem or to symbolize the nine months that Jesus spent in Mary’s womb. The following is a description, of how one small town, Churintzio, Michoacan, carries on that tradition.

Having just moved to Churintzio and never having experienced Las Posadas before, myself, and Maria, my wife, who had not been involved in one since she had moved with her family to San Jose, California when she was twelve years old, participated in our barrios’/neighborhoods’ sponsored and subsidized posada; this being the first of the nine consecutive nightly processions. After nightfall, approximately 120 celebrants had gathered by the church sanctuary, of course including the town’s priest who was coordinating the event Everyone was handed a booklet of villancicos/religious Christmas carols and a lit candle. Leading this candle-lit procession were two costumed adolescents portraying Joseph and Mary, with Mary riding sidesaddle on a donkey. As the procession wended its way through our neighborhood, with a hand-held explosion producing cannon blasting away persistently and loudly (the very same cannon that accompanies all of the towns' numerous religious processions, be it 4AM or midnight!) announcing the current location of the pilgrims, more and more celebrants joined the posada.

By prearrangement, along the way the procession stopped at three homes. At the first two homes, when Joseph and Mary asked for lodging they were denied by the innkeepers, also costumed. How all this transpired was through Mary and Joseph (and the celebrants) singing multiple verses of the carol/chant “Para Pedir Posada”/"To Ask For Lodging" and the innkeepers responding in alternating verses while refusing to provide them shelter. Finally, at the third inn, also in song, upon realizing who the pilgrims were, and not thieves as the first two innkeepers had insinuated that they might be, the innkeeper said that Joseph and Mary could spend the night in his stable.

Upon the finding of lodging for the pilgrims, the posada then turned into a joyous traditional Christmas outdoor celebration for the participants (and untraditionally, for others!). Representing the devil, a seven-starred clay pot pinata was smashed open by the children (the broken pinata symbolizing the death of Satan) and then the kids excitedly gathered up its contents of sweets, sugar cane, peanuts, and tangerines. In a fiesta/party atmosphere, tamales and bunuelos/sweetened puffed up fried fritters were consumed and atole/the traditional warm masa-based porridge-like accompaniment to tamales and ponche/warm fruit punch were imbibed.

At that point Maria made an observation. She stated that when she was a child only the people who had participated in the posada would join in the food, drink, and merriment. However, on this night, she said that it was dismayingly apparent that far more people-adults with their children-were partying than had actually been an active part of the procession. As a result, she explained, a main purpose of the posada was being lost; the children who were only reaping the benefits of the posada's fiesta were not being taught the true meaning of the nativity; thus, it was in jeopardy of not being passed on intergenerationally.

Overall, I found the posada that we participated in to be culturally enlightening and a positive learning experience as to how many of the residents in our town traditionally celebrate Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem and the birth of Christ. However, I hope that the “posada crashing” is something that has not become a permanent rite of this nine day religious and social celebration. In any language, whether or not the interlopers drank champurrado/a locally popular chocolate and milk enhanced atole while eating their pork tamales, that newer “tradition” is simply not “kosher.”

POSTSCRIPT to the original article:

In early December, four years after we had attended the aforementioned posada, my wife and myself were in our doctor's waiting room when Maria struck up a conversation with an elderly woman who was also waiting to see the doctor. The woman told my wife that Churintzio's new padre/priest was adamant that he would put an end to the not-so-traditional "posada crashing" in the forthcoming posadas that he would be leading; we had previously been told by our occasional hiking companion, the town's veterinarian, that the new priest was quite stern and was alienating a certain percentage of the town's faithful. Consequently, we decided to participate (ok, I really just wanted to primarily observe) in another posada.

Thus, having joined in our barrio’s posada, I observed many changes from the previous one that I had witnessed. To put an end to the “posada crashing,” that night’s posada rather than starting at the church sanctuary began in our neighborhood on the street that we live on, Guadalupe Victoria-named in honor of Mexico’s first president who had changed his name to demonstrate his devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the nation’s patron saint and the manifestation of the Virgin Mary). From the beginning it was obvious that this posada was much more organized as it even almost started on time. Also, many more people were participating in it, perhaps more than a total of 200, representing a good cross-section of the town age-wise and it had the makings of a real family affair rather than a primarily elderly one.

Yet, there were many differences that I did not see as so positive as some untraditional aspects were either added or untraditionally subtracted. In the forefront was the priest seated in a pick-up truck who was leading the prayers with the aid of a loud speaker. Instead of the participants being given a booklet of villancicos to sing from, the vehicle’s pre-recorded sound system was mechanically “singing" all of the verses of the “Para Pedir Posada” without any joining along singing from the celebrants or from the innkeepers (of which there weren’t any!) when the vehicle stopped at each “inn.” Even more surprising to me was that this historically “candlelit procession” did not have any candles, lit or otherwise; apparently, it had been determined that they would be eliminated from the procession as some people had been burnt in the past-without the lit candles, for me, at least, something atmospherically integral was missing from the procession above and beyond mere flickering light.

The posada terminated at the sanctuary where all of the celebrants entered the church which was simply yet elegantly decorated for the Christmas season. When all were seated and when the children, who had been admonished by the priest to stop fooling around, settled down, everyone in attendance was given a bag of gift wrapped candies. For whatever reason, the pinata had also been eliminated from the proceedings.

I do not know if there is a Mexican expression which is the equivalent of "be careful of what you wish for..." Yes, the rude and disrespectful "posada crashing" had been thankfully proactively dispensed with. Yet, was it really necessary to eliminate the singing, the curtailing of the crashing of the pinata, and the extinguishing of the evocatively symbolic guiding candles? Oh yes, also, Joseph and Mary were there but where was the donkey?

POSTCRIPT TO THE POSTCRIPT:

The next year, the fifth year that we had been living in Churintzio, we did not participate in our barrio's posada. However, when I heard it starting to pass by our house, I looked out the window and really liked what I heard and saw. A good percentage of the participants were holding lit candles and most were singing. Not to be seen or heard was the pick-up truck and the sound system. It seemed to me that part of the posada tradition had been restored. Well, at least for this year. As for next year's posada...???