LAS POSADAS

Las Posadas owe their origin to Fray Diego de Soria, O.S.A. who introduced the devotion at the church of Acolman, Estado de México in 1587 with the approval of Pope Sixtus V. The intent of the zealous Augustinian missionary was to counteract the Aztec celebrations in honor of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, which took place at this time of the year and which still held a strong attraction for the Christian neophytes.

In time, Las Posadas became so popular that they spread not only throughout the churches of New Spain and neighboring colonies, but also came to be celebrated by the people in their homes.

In these secular celebrations, groups of peregrinos go from house to house headed by un angel who leads the burrito, the little donkey bearing Mary. Joseph patiently follows with the few possessions of the Holy Family in a knapsack. After singing the litany, the hymns of petition and welcome, the owners of the particular house, honored that evening as hosts, fling open their doors, invite los peregrinos to enter, and offer them the traditional champurrado, tamales and buñuelos. Festive songs, music and dance follow for the evening.

La Piñata is a game that follows the evening's Posada. Families gather in the courtyard, the children to participate, the adults to watch the fun. Boys and girls form a circle. In the center hangs a clay jar or gaily decorated bag filled with fruit and candy.

One child after another is blindfolded, turned round and around, and then

given a stick about the size of a broom handle. Each contestant has three chances to break la piñata, but they can swing only after a little ditty has been sung; otherwise someone might be clouted on the head. At the word, the contestant takes a mighty wallop where la piñata is thought to be hanging. Needless to say, all the watchers must be alert to avoid the stick. At times la piñata is controlled from a balcony, being tantalizingly raised or lowered near the batter. When la piñata is broken, there follows a mad scramble for the sweets.

FROM "CUETLAXOCHITL" TO "POINSETTIA"

During the Christmas season, bright red poinsettias appear on greeting cards, in newspaper advertisements, and in manger scenes. How does it happen that this magnificent wildflower from the hillsides of central and southern México became a symbol of Christmas alongside the Three Wise Men, pine trees, and Santa Claus in the United States?

First, let's look at a poinsettia. Where do the green leaves and the colored “flower” begin and end? Can you find the odd clump of true flowers in the center of the colored leaves? This type of strange flower, along with a milky juice, is characteristic of a genus of plants called Euphorbia. The poinsettia, for clear reasons, is named Euphorbia pulcherrima, the very beautiful euphorbia. But the name "poinsettia", where does it come from?

A South Carolinian named Joel Roberts Poinsett was the first minister to represent the United States of America in México (1825-1830); when he was called home, he took with him several samples of the plants, propagated them and then sold them in his many trips to other countries, this way they soon became associated with his name - and with Christmas.

However, Poinsett did not invent the idea of poinsettias as the Christmas flower. Three hundred years earlier, at the beginning of the Spanish colony, the Franciscan missionaries had added them to the manger scene because they had observed that this grand flower was of special importance to the Aztecs in their literature, medicine and ceremonial rites. It was considered the purest of all flowers and it's known that they carefully cultivated them in the first botanical garden in the world, that of King Netzahualcoyotl, 1402-1472. By careful selection, colors ranging from white to almost black, had been obtained and still exist, even though the scarlet ones remain the most abundant. Thus, the missionaries had brought together symbols of great religious importance to both Aztecs and Spaniards and had added the name Flor de Nochebuena to the Nahuatl name "CUETLAXOCHITL".

PIÑATAS

It's a colorful decoration. It's a symbol of gaiety. It comes with surprises. Everyone loves to be in on the breaking of a piñata.

Piñatas came to the United States from México, where they are said to be as common during

Yuletide as a Christmas tree is in the United States. But the piñata is an old Italian custom, having its start in Italy during the 16th century. It was developed during the Renaissance, when the common people were beginning to have a gay time, being liberated from some of the religious restrictions. Only the wealthy people learned to read and write. The common people entertained themselves by telling stories and playing games.

A piñata was an earthen pot, and the game was played by blindfolding each person, giving them a stick, twirling them a few times, and allowing them to strike the suspended pot, just above the head. The cord holding the pot could be used to vary the height as the person swung. The pot was called pignatta, from pigna, meaning cone-shaped in Italian. Travelers and adventurers took the custom to Spain, where the first Sunday of Lent was designated as Domingo de Piñata, and a ball was held, called Baile de Piñata. Piñatas were usually only broken during Lent.

Piñatas continued to be rather ugly unglazed earthen pots when the Spaniards introduced them to México, along with the Spanish culture and Christian religion. The game took on religious significance then and is important now during the Christmas season. Some families break them only on Christmas Eve, but others break them the nine evenings before Christmas. About 100 years ago, Mexican artisans began to decorate the pots with colorful tissue paper, forming them to look like carrots, radishes, pineapples, and roses.

Visitors from the United States liked the decorated piñatas, and bought them to take home. The demand was so great that the piñata makers started to make them of papier-mâché. Many of the piñatas made in México still have the earthen pot inside the papier-mâché. The variety of shapes has enlarged to include stars, bells, donkeys, ducks, birds, toys, Santa Clauses, witches, bulls, elephants, eggs, drums, clowns, pumpkins, cakes, satellites, trucks, cowboys, indians, airplanes, and footballs. The use of the piñata has also spread, with piñatas being broken on Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, Fourth of July, and for birthday parties. They are available from department stores, gift shops, party shops, and Mexican import shops. The piñatas are filled with everything from traditional candy to fine jewelry, and from nuts and fruit to toys. Some are even filled with treasure maps, where the person getting the map must follow the directions to find the prize.

Most piñata parties at Christmas time are for children, with candy the goal of those scrambling when the piñata is broken. The host usually has a reserve supply of candy, so that those who do not get a treat in the scramble will not go away empty-handed.

Piñatas are now used in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, United States and Canada.

VILLANCICOS

After centuries of maintaining a rigidly inflexible liturgy that did much to separate clergy and congregation, the Catholic Church has restored or inaugurated certain forms conceived to vitalize the service. Today priests face their congregations in celebrating the Mass, and the language currently used in each country has replaced Latin.

These "popular" innovations are not unrelated in effect to the Black spirituals that for decades have been part of Protestant church services in the United States; or even to the recent attempts in Europe to animate the Mass with modern music, and in México with the traditionally popular songs of mariachis. Furthermore, all of these present-day modifications of the Church liturgy indicate pointedly the origin and development of Castillian villancicos, rudimental pastoral poetry, not necessarily religious. Although today the term translates roughly into Christmas carols, the Spanish Royal Academy in its venerable dictionary defines villancico as: "A popular poetical composition, with refrain, that treats principally religious subjects, and is sung at Christmas and during other religious holidays."

From these rudimentary compositions both plays, the idyll and the religious, developed. But the principal use of villancicos remained, at first, symbolically closer to their pastoral origin: lyrics that “los pastores de Belén” could sing at midnight mass each Christmas Eve. As time passed, the habit of bringing secular music into the church spread to other religious holidays, anniversaries and dedications. By the 16th century, villancicos were composed for every religious fiesta observed by the cathedrals at Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, México City and Puebla. Derived mostly from folk songs, the lyrics teemed with popular subjects but styled themselves after sacred themes.

At the same historical time that conquistadores were bringing popular Spanish poetry to México (Cortés is in Tacuba . . .), Franciscans arrived with a religion whose ceremonies included a copious amount of villancicos. Once the indians had mastered the new language and the european style of music, they soon began to compose these popular songs themselves, both for organ-accompanied hymns and for certain masses. Taking the form to heart, they composed villancicos even in Nahuatl. And some indians were reported to have surpassed in art and inventiveness the members of México City's official Spanish chorus, which was first organized in 1543.

During the next two centuries villancicos appeared plentifully throughout the history of the church in México. Those alone attributed to the great poetess Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz occupy a complete volume (628 pages); the strongest remnant today of the popular influence once collected works. However, 18th century rationalism, with Charles III's prohibition of allegorical plays and the concurrent suppression of vernacular songs in the churches, reduced the influence of villancicos to a few canticles sung at Christmas. This attack against the folk element in choral singing, which originated in Spain, gained lasting victory.

The church's recent turn toward a more vigorous interchange between the clergy and people assures a rebirth of folk poetry, which may become the seed for a new era of villancicos.

FELIZ NAVIDAD GREETINGS LISTED BELOW YOU WILL FIND HOLIDAY GREETINGS IN 18 LANGUAGES

1. FELIZ NATAL Portuguese

2. JOYEUX NOEL French

3. FROEHLICHE WEINACHTEN German

4. MÙNG CHÚA GIÁNG SINH Vietnamese

5. UNGIL KURISMAS Palauan

6. MELE KALIKIMAKA Hawaiian

7. BUON NATALE Italian

8. MALIGAYANG PASKO Tagalog

9. BOZE NARODZENIE Polish

10. GLAEDLIG JUL Danish

11. CHANUKAH Hebrew

12. SHINEN OMEDETO Japanese

13. HRÓNIA POLLAH Greek

14. KRISMAS ´CHANGAMFU Swahili

15. FELIZ NAVIDAD Spanish

16. GOD JUL Swedish

17. GUNG HAY FAT CHOY Chinese

18. MERRY CHRISTMAS English

AL NIÑO

A la ruru niño

en el nogal,

los petirrojos te van a arrullar;

los tecolotes te van a cuidar

y los gorriones te despertarán

“Los Minilibros” Dr. Ernesto Galarza 1972. Un Mexicano

FELIZ NAVIDAD, AMIGOS ´Tis the night before Christmas and all thru the casa

not a creature is stirring. ¡Caramba! ¿Que pasa?

The stockings are hanging con mucho cuidado

in hopes that St. Nickolas will feel obligado

to leave a few cosas aquí and allí

for chico and chica (¡y something for mí!)

Los niños are snuggled all safe in their camas

some in vestidos and some in pajamas;

their little cabezas all full of good things,

they esperan que Old Santa will bring.

Santa is down at the corner saloon,

muy alegre since mid-afternoon.

Mamá is sitting beside la ventana

shining her rolling pin para mañana

when Santa comes in un manner extraño

lit up like the Star Spangled Banner . . . cantando;

Mamá will send him to bed con los coches,

¡Merry Christmas to all, and to all Buenas Noches!

1972. Anonymous Aztlán Academy Archives Un Chicano

U N I V E R S A L   N E E D S   O F   C H I L D H O O D      As  a  child,  I  feel    

The  need  to  be  myself  –  to  be  the  person  I  am,  rather  than  being  pushed  into  trying  to  be  someone  I  am  not.      The  need   for   self-­‐achievement   –   to  be   allowed   to  progress   at  my  own  speed  and  within  the  framework  of  my  own  abilities.      The   need   for   motivation   –   to   have   someone   open   the   world   of  knowledge   to   me   thru   reading   and   books,   and   show   me   how   to   use  reading  to  find  answers  to  my  questions.      The   need   for   time   –   time   to   learn   at  my   own   pace;   time   to   spend   by  myself,  absorbing  what  I  have  been  given  to  learn.      The   need   for   freedom   from   labels   –   freedom   to   learn  whatever   I   can  learn,  without  the  handicap  of  being  judged  and  placed  in  a  stereotyped  group.      The  need   for   freedom   from  anxiety   –   so   that  my   confidence   in  myself  may   grow   along  with  my   ability   to   cope  with   the   experiences   that   lie  ahead.      The  need  for  a  picture  of  myself  which  I  can  like  –  the  need  to  see  myself  as  a  person  of  worth,  one  whom  other  people  accept  and  like.