Las Posadas

Posadas in Mexico begin on December 16 and continue for 9 nights, ending on December 24. They are said to represent either the 9 months Mary carried Jesus, or the 9 days of journey to Bethlehem. (I learned this from the Internet.)

Tonight we were upstairs in the office, with a nice fire in the fireplace, when we realized there was a large crowd of people in front of the house holding candles, singing. So we rushed downstairs and went outside, where we were greeted by a friendly crowd of several dozen, with a representation of Mary and the donkey in the center of the group. We made prayerful gestures and smiled, and they invited us to continue on with them. I said I wasn’t wearing shoes (slippers) and we begged off, and they went on down the street. It was our neighborhood posada, and they will continue every night until Christmas Eve.

Now they are launching cohetes, the noisy rockets, right out on the street. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised—cohetes are part of every religious celebration in Mexico. They’ve just always been farther away before now…