Posadas in Mexico
What
a wonderful season December is in Mexico: piñatas and Posadas………and much more.
Shortly
after the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities are over the stores and
markets that were filled with cempasuchitl (marigolds) flowers, sugar skulls,
papel picado (confetti) and pan de muerto, or Day of the Dead bread suddenly
become ready for the Christmas season.
Everywhere
you turn there are piñatas of all forms, sizes and colors, as well as candles
for the posadas, nochebuena flowers, better known
as poinsettias (these flowers are indigenous to Mexico and are seen in profusion,
and figurines made of wood, ceramic or paste for the nativity scene.
Stores
and street vendors are also selling all kinds of beautiful ornaments that
merrily announce the proximity of one of the happiest periods of the year
This
week after the fiesta for Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12th)
ends, the preparation for the Christmas season begins. The first of nine posadas
is held on December 16. These are fiestas, which represent Joseph
and Mary's arduous pilgrimage on their way to Bethlehem, and there are nine
posadas, from the 16 to the 24 of December, because
they symbolize Mary's nine months of pregnancy.
Since
people in Los Cabos really enjoy fiestas they like to start the
celebrations as soon as possible. These are what they call pre-posadas, which are, as you may
imagine, posadas that are held before December 16!