The Gift of Sharing: Christmas, a Special Time in Lake Chapala Mexico

By Marie Dwyer-Bullock
www.focusonmexico.com

It was our second Christmas in Mexico and we wanted to participate again in one of the traditional posadas. (We have now lived here for ten years and have never missed a year, always participating in a couple of posadas.) The first posada starts on December 16th and continues for nine days, with the last one being Christmas Eve (symbolizing Mary’s nine months of pregnancy). These fiestas are recreations of the pilgrimage to Bethlehem made so long ago by Joseph and Mary.

We like to start with the one in San Antonio. The posada begins at dusk, with the procession starting at the top of a street and winding through the village and ending up at the church. In front will be a young girl riding a donkey, representing Mary. Walking alongside will be a young boy, representing Joseph. The village priest will be there with a bullhorn leading the ceremony and all the people in the village file along with the procession, starting with a small group and then growing as the procession makes its way along. All the people carry candles and sing the traditional songs asking for posada (a place to sleep for the night). Along the way there will be seven stops where there will be live nativity scenes. At each of the first six, half the crowd outside will stop and sing a song asking for posada, and people inside will respond there is no room. The seventh stop when they sing to ask for posada they are accepted and everyone goes into the church (or other locations), and enjoy traditional food prepared in advance. The children get bags of candy and then they break piñatas.

It was at this point that Ray and I were standing watching the children break the piñatas and then everyone (including the adults) rush in to catch the falling fruit and candy. We didn’t want to take any; we just stopped by and enjoyed watching. Then when it was over, the little kids sat on the sidewalk and started eating their bounty. We decided to leave and returned to the car. A tiny little boy followed us and knocked on Ray’s window. Ray immediately got a couple of pesos out of a little container we keep in the car for that purpose, thinking that was what the little guy was wanting. Instead, to our surprise, he reached up and handed us two oranges and told Ray in Spanish that he wanted to share because he saw we didn’t get anything. The last thing we wanted to do was take his fruit, but we knew he would be hurt and we would have denied him the gift of sharing (which is so typically Mexican), so we gratefully accepted. We have experienced so many wonderful moments like this since moving to Mexico, we started to call them ‘precious moments,’ which we store in our memories and in our hearts. Living in Mexico has given us a new lease on life and after eleven years we still experience the wonder of the Mexican people and the warmth they so generously offer us.

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