FIESTAS DECEMBRINAS
December Feasts
December… here it is
again and for many of us who are away from our homeland during
this season, it can be a time filled with mixed feelings of happiness,
sadness, excitement and longing for family and friends who were
left faraway. One way to get through this time and truly enjoy
the celebrations is to recreate them in our new homes and share
them with our loved ones. This is why all of us at Klass
have come together to reminisce about our magnificent and magical
traditions of December’s Fiestas in México
filled with love, music, food, family and sparkle.
It seems that a fiesta or
two is taking place every month of the year somewhere in México
but never more than in the month of December, when the celebrations
are non-stop and so many that they overlap.
Starting on December 3rd the nine-day tribute to the Virgin
of Guadalupe begins and culminates on December 12, the special
day in 1531 when Her image appeared on the cloak of Juan Diego.
During this nine-day celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother
of all México, other fiestas are taking place throughout
the country, for example; the celebration honoring Nuestra
Señora de la Salud (Our Lady of Health) on the
8th and Nuestra Señora de la Soledad on the 18th. Then
starting on the 16th are the nine posadas that go
on through the 24th. Posadas are fiestas representative of the
nine months that Mary was pregnant and Hers and Joseph’s
pilgrimage on their way to Bethlehem. Besides the posadas being
held all over México, Oaxaca holds its extremely popular
Radish Festival on the 23.
Noche Buena (Christmas Eve)
and Navidad (Christmas Day) finally arrive and all of México
is in a state of bliss. The last posada is celebrated on Noche
Buena and the arrival of the peregrinos (holy pilgrims),
from the various neighborhoods will arrive at the traditional
“Misa de Gallo” (Rooster’s Mass), which
is held at midnight. One will hear the familiar cohetes (skyrockets);
see the ever-present Luces de Bengala (sparklers),
Nacimientos, Piñatas and never absent from this
celebration are the customary heart warming beverages like ponche
(a hot fruit punch), atole (corn gruel), sidra (sparkling
cider) and the deliciously comforting and traditional tamales,
romeritos, bacalao, roast turkey or ham and the internationally
famous buñuelos.
Christmas Day in México
is very quiet as families try to recover from the all-day and
all-night festivities of the previous day. The big event of this
special day is to enjoy the family, rest and partake of the prior
day’s leftovers (recalentado). Gift giving
is a relatively new tradition, some 50 years or so. Before, gifts
were only exchanged on January 6, Dia de los Santos Reyes
(Day of the Three-Gift-Bearing Wisemen). Today, adults exchange
presents after dinner on the 24th and children wake up on the
25th to find the gifts they asked Santa for. This of course does
not mean that the old tradition is long and gone –no. Children
all over México eagerly look forward to January 5th because
this is when they send their wish list attached to a multicolored
balloon up to the heavens and in the evening they practice the
old custom of leaving out a shoe in hopes that Los Reyes
Magos come to visit and fill their shoes with treasures.
On January 6th children wake
up to find gifts left by the Reyes Magos and even though
the custom of setting up a Christmas tree and mailing a wish list
to Santa Claus is becoming more and more popular in México,
the Day of the Three-Gift-Bearing Wisemen is still
the most magnificent, mystical and dreamlike day for children
in every region of the country.
Later on this special day,
family and friends gather to share hot atole
and a special treat called “Rosca de Reyes”
--a traditional wreath-shaped sweet bread, decorated with candied
fruits that is baked only during the first days of January. Hidden
inside the rosca are one or more tiny figures of the Baby
Jesus. Each person present will cut a slice of the bread and the
guest who finds the baby figurine is named the Godparent of the
Christ Child from the Nacimiento and is obliged to host
the next party which is to take place on February 2, Dia
de la Candelaria (Candlemass Day or Day of Purification).
On Candlemas Day,
after the Christ Child from the Nativity scene has been taken
to church to be blessed, the Godparent will serve the traditional,
delicious atole and tamales at the
party --two dishes that have been part of Mexican life since
pre-Hispanic times. And, it is the conclusion of this celebration
that marks the finally of México’s Fiestas Decembrinas.
For those of you who would
like to recreate our beautiful Mexican December Feasts,
Klass has compiled detailed information of the most traditional
events that take place during this magical season and recipes
of the mouthwatering dishes that have been passed on from generation
to generation and are essential to our ethnicity and revelry.
So enjoy and…
Feliz Navidad!!
