Marrying into a family of Mexican immigrants taught me new ways to practice my Catholic faith during the holidays. From honoring the Virgin de Guadalupe, to spending hours preparing tamales, these traditions differ from what I learned growing up in rural Wisconsin. But one tradition — the nine-day celebration of Las Posadas — stands out, principally for how it brings people together. Now, as our country finds itself divided on the subject of immigration, understanding this tradition offers a way to rethink the meaning of the holidays and appreciate those who have sacrificed so much to come here.
The four weeks preceding Christmas Day, as I learned in catechism, is Advent. During this time of preparation, we adorn our tables with wreaths, wear purple to signify royalty (as Christ is considered king) and do charitable acts such as food drives in our communities.
Practicing Las Posadas doesn’t break from such traditions as much as deepen their meaning.
The word posada is Spanish for lodging. The tradition begins in how Spanish colonizers blended Mexica/Aztec rituals that celebrated the festival of the 15th month of their calendar, Panquetzaliztli, during the winter solstice in Mexico, to convert Indigenous people to Christianity. But what makes Las Posadas Christian is emphasizing the part from the Gospel of Luke 2:7 when we learn that Mary and Joseph were looking for a place to stay after registering to pay taxes in Bethlehem. In only that Gospel, do we find Mary and Joseph looking and failing to find lodging and ending up in a manger for the birth of Christ.
Practiced for more than 400 years wherever Latino Christians reside, Las Posadas includes over the course of the nine days before Christmas, daily celebrations of pinatas, food, and prayer. The prayers allude to how Mary and Joseph were traveling, seeking shelter and not finding it. In Minnesota, we took a small statue of the Mother Mary house to house over those nine days, praying together and then sharing a meal with different dishes that each family prepared.
But where most citizens center on the stability of the manger at the center of the Nativity scene when thinking of Christ’s birth, being on the move and searching for lodging adds a different meaning to the Christmas holiday that immigrants embody.
On that meaning, I think of the people with whom I ate and prayed with over those nine days. What brought us together was our faith and the importance of being with one another to practice it. Unlike me, many of them were like Mary and Joseph, searching for shelter and sanctuary, believing they had found it in the U.S. To celebrate, they created community with me, making Christmas real by sharing food, praying and singing and breaking the occasional pinata with candy, to ensure everyone, including children, had something to enjoy. Centering the journey as much as the destination, Las Posadas is a tradition based on kindness and inclusion, sacrifice and community.
We are told repeatedly to find the true meaning of Christmas. Holiday movies remind us of love and family. We take work off to be with loved ones during the holiday season. We relax and watch football and basketball games. But Christmas is more than a vacation, as celebrating Christ’s birth is supposed to herald God becoming human for all. Regardless of the different faiths and their recognition of Christmas, or lack thereof, this idea of love without condition and universal community is something we can all aspire to.
Just as important, immigrants and Las Posadas show that the point of the holiday season is in the intentional effort to be together. Preparation for Christ’s arrival is not watching a movie or shopping for gifts, but in taking the time to build the meaningful bonds of community that immigrants, regardless of their status, around our country are doing now. Our country would be a better place if we all appreciated and understood this.
Anthony Pahnke is an associate professor of international relations at San Francisco State University and vice president of the Family Farm Defenders. He can be reached at anthonypahnke@sfsu.edu.
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