Preparing for Christmas in Mexico  It may not be the goose that is getting fat, but home-grown turkeys (including those due to be imported from the UK) certainly are. If you haven't already planned your Christmas vacation in Mexico, it's high time that you did, or you might find yourself knocking on doors with no room at the inn - or on flights.
This is when the temporada alta (high season) begins, and prices soar. For example a flight to Cancun from Mexico City will cost just over 3,000 pesos (US$300) in low season, but now will hover around 5 or 6,000 (US$500-600). Even a cheap beach holiday, such as the classic Pie de la Cuesta get-away near Acapulco, will cost considerably more and many of the better hotels on this pleasant strip will be booked for the key dates already. At first glance la Navidad in Mexico seems reassuringly (or alarmingly) familiar to Yuletide in the United States. Stores are cluttered with junk and tinsel, Santa Claus (even though he has nothing to do with Mexico) is all over the place, neighborhoods are transformed by fairy lights, streets are packed with shoppers and traffic is unbearable. Traditional Mexican Christmas fare is bacalao (salt cod) and romeritos (mole with romero, i.e. fresh rosemary), but this great commercial festival has been heavily Americanized and you'll be hard pushed to find a table that doesn't include a roast turkey too. The same applies to decorations. Traditionally Mexicans don't have fir trees (from the tannenbaum Germanic tradition imported into the states), twinkling with fairy lights and topped with a star. Instead they have elaborate nacimientos, nativity or crèche scenes (supposedly deriving from 13th century Italian tradition). These scenes include not only Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds and kings, but tradesmen and hawkers, such as sellers of huaraches, coca cola, and campesinos with pack mules -- a huge creative inventory of ordinary life that is great fun for children to observe and an inspiration to the imagination. Now many Mexican homes sport both, or only the tree, leaving the nativity scenes to the churches, where they still take over most of the altar space, with cascades, leafy pools, forest animals, and many surreal wonders surrounding the core manger scene. Mexican tradition also refrains from stockpiling presents at this time, leaving gifts for children until Jan. 6, el Día de Los Reyes Magos (the Day of the Three Kings), which of course fits in with the Bible story, since it was the wise men who brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newborn baby. Mexican television is starting to wage its annual terror campaign on parents, with adverts directed to little ones' acquisitive instincts, and we are often forced to shower fashionable and soon-to-be forgotten toys on our kids both on Dec. 25 and Jan. 6. (If you are a parent living here, this is a timely reminder to strike a deal with your offspring now - either Christmas Day or Reyes Magos, but not both). Most poignant are the songs. Apart from "Los Peces en el Río," a beautiful children's carol about the birth of Christ, and the haunting "seeking posada [lodging]" tune (sung when acting out Mary and Joseph's search for a room) many Mexicans cannot remember their traditional villansicos (Christmas carols). Once December takes hold, walk into any commercial store here, and you'll be subjected to the strains of "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer" and other jingles of that ilk. However, there are a number of crucial differences in the celebrations. Firstly, even if it's a turkey dinner, it will be eaten late on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, and not as lunch on Dec. 25. In fact, the traditional mass is at midnight (called "la misa del gallo" the rooster's mass) and the dinner comes afterwards - which explains why nobody does anything at all on the following day! Also, there are the posadas (the inns, based around the search for a room), a series of Christmas parties and church processions that begin on Dec. 14. If you catch the latter (often around 6 p.m. at a church, or important chapel) they are often very picturesque, with children dressed as Bible characters, swinging lanterns and shepherd's staffs, and often with a blue-clad diminutive Mary on a real burro. This is the time of the year when the piñata really comes into its own. Traditionally, the piñata was not part of birthday celebrations, but formed the crowning glory to the Posada Christmas party. It did not resemble Spider Man or Cinderella, but was the odd star shape, with the bulbous belly and seven tassled prongs, to symbolize the greed of the devil and the seven deadly sins, which are smashed by the redemption promised by Christ. The posadas however are a reminder that Christmas here, as in most countries that celebrate it, is a family time, and the close-knit aspect of Mexican society is very much in evidence in the fortnight running up to Dec. 25. Foreign visitors, if they do not have family or close friends here, might feel rather left out, and it's a good idea to head for the beach (which you should be booking now, if you haven't already) rather than be caught up in the impersonal swirl of Christmas shopping in the capital. By Barbara Kastelein Return to top |
