Las Posadas

Christmas is looming!

Soon, we will 'light' the third candle on our Advent wreath. We all had a lot of fun making it out of construction paper on the morning of the first Sunday of Advent.

Wednesday we went to buy our Christmas tree. We were going to wait until Christmas Eve, but thought we might not find one then. The girls enjoyed decorating it - we went with an antique theme, using ribbon as garland, and old-fashioned toys and bells for ornaments.

Next week we will be hosting Las Posadas, a traditional Mexican Christmas novena that reminds us of Joseph and Mary’s desperate search for lodging in Bethlehem. I will post some pictures of that afterward. We got our neighbors in on the act - the houses on either side of us will be the first two 'inns' that Joseph and Mary are turned away from. Then the procession comes to our house, where we have a big party. It should be great fun.

Las Posadas: In 1578, an Augustinian friar introduced this novena in Mexico to combat the pagan customs of the Aztecs. They honored their warrior god, Huitzilopochtli, during the time that corresponds to Christmas - the friar’s intent was to begin a Christian devotion that would lessen the attention that the Indians gave to pagan rituals.