Feliz Navidad, prospero año y felicidad

As I type there are two small children outside of our front door holding a tree branch, singing, and shaking a can full of coins. The branch is decorated with balloons and a gold garland, and the girl is wearing a princess dress.

This is called cantando la rama (literally, "singing the branch") and is a Christmas tradition in Veracruz. Starting in mid-December groups of kids process door-to-door standing outside of a house and singing a song called La Rama until they get tired or someone comes to the door with money. It's a bit like Halloween, except money is the preferred handout and the kids don't normally ring the doorbell first. In fact, the kids who just came to our door rang the bell, and Adriana and Alejandro were a bit miffed.

Courtesy of Wikipedia
(I've taken enough photos of kids I don't know):

The Mexican Christmas celebrations spread out over the period of about a month, beginning with the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe and ending with epiphany and the celebration of the Reyes Magos (three wise men).

Another door-to-door tradition is called Las Posadas (the inns, or the lodging). The tradition celebration of Las Posadas features a group of peregrinos (pilgrims) walking through a neighbourhood and stopping to sing a song to pedir posada, or ask for lodging. This pilgrimage is in homage to the wanderings of Mary and Joseph in search of a place to stay in Bethlehem. The song has 12 verses and is sung responsively - the pilgrims sing one verse, and the people inside of the house respond. At the end of the song both groups join together and the pilgrims are welcomed into the house for a party.

As I understand, the door-to-door part of this tradition is becoming less popular, and instead guests will arrive at a house for a scheduled party and enter by singing the 12-verse song. We staged a version of this at the posada of the school for foreign students a few weeks ago. The word posada can also simply refer to a pre-Christmas party, such as a the pizza-and-cake gatherings that I've had to wrap up some of my university classes.

The bigger parties often include piñatas that look like three-dimensional stars. The traditional piñatas have seven conical points that represent the seven deadly sins of Catholicism. Destroying these points represents the overcoming of temptation and evil. I have seen piñatas in the star-style with anywhere from 5 to 20 points.


Like many Canadian kids, Mexican kids also stage small Christmas concerts for parents. I was lucky enough to go to Jiram's Christmas concert last week. The first act featured a cast of toddlers dressed up as chipmunks (whiskers and all) who shook rattles to the song "Jingle Bell Rock" and performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks.


It only got better from there, as a series of very bewildered-looking children tried desperately to remember their choreography while dressed up as stars, meringue dancers and elderly people. Sometimes a kid would fall down, or screw up her face and start to wander towards some relative in the audience.

The traditional part of the show came at the end, with a pastorela, or Christmas play. These plays tell the story of a group of shepherds trying to find their way to the stable to worship the newly born Jesus. These plays are usually humourous, and Jiram's was no exception. Granted, a large part of the humour came from the spontaneity of the kids, whose simply delivery of the lines could cause a laugh. Jiram played Panfilio, an assistant to the devil who helps to trip up the unsuspecting shepherds on their pilgrimage.


A pastorela always ends with a nativity scene as the shepherds overcome the obstacles and reach the manger.


Like the mixture of Halloween and El Día de Los Muertos, Christmas is a combination of the western Santa Claus and the the Latin American Reyes Magos and niño Jesús. The gifts technically come from Jesus and the three wise men, but the kids all know who Santa is and many believe that he exists. In a brief conversation with Jiram we decided that Santa brings gifts to Canadian kids, and Jesus brings gifts to Mexican kids.

The Christmas preparations have indeed taken over Xalapa. This is obvious in the decorations downtown - a giant Christmas tree, hanging wired-framed nativity scenes that light up at night, and a larger-than-life-sized nativity scene in front of the Cathedral with plastic figurines. In the following photos, note the sudden change in background scenery:




Nativity scenes have been set up all around Xalapa, including in my house. The markets have started to sell an assortment of figurines, such as this baby Jesus:


Even Dr. Simi has dressed up for the occasion:


Oddly enough, as I finish this post I can hear the "posada" song being sung at a Christmas party in the nearby school. Oh - and now they're singing the piñata song. Merry Christmas.