Merry Christmas from all of us at the NewsLeader! monday
December 24 2012 www.newwestnewsleader.com
Lubna Abdelrahman immigrated to Canada from Sudan 11 years ago, and is now helping spread the Christmas spirit. See Page A9
mArIO bArTeL/NeWSLeADer
Ivonne Penit and Maylen Crespo hold the baby Jesus figurine that will be added to the nativity scene on Christmas Eve, the last night of the Posadas that launches the Christmas season in Mexico. The tree is also decorated on Christmas Eve.
From early November to late December, we are surrounded by the touchstones of the Christmas season, colourful strings of lights, Santa Claus in malls, Black Friday and Boxing Day sales, special church services, long lines at the grocery store, and harried check-in counters at the airport as families travel to be together over the holidays. But it’s not that way for everyone. As a nation of immigrants, many new Canadians, or those whose roots are elsewhere, celebrate Christmas by reforging the bonds to the culture and traditions of their homeland. It’s a way of connecting to their heritage, to relatives and friends they may not get the chance to see too often and to pass on their traditions to the next generation. Today, the NewsLeader highlights some of their stories.
Fond memories of a Mexican Christmas mario bartel
the baby Jesus and celebrate her and Joseph’s search for a room at an inn in Bethlehem to give birth. Children carry candles and figurines of Joseph and Mary riding a donkey as they parade past houses decorated with evergreen boughs and paper lanterns. At each house where they stop, they sing songs about Joseph and Mary’s quest for a room. Most of the time the procession is told to move along, there’s no room.
NewsLeader
Christmas in Mexico is a nearly two-month celebration of parties, plays, pinatas and praying you don’t end up with the little plastic Jesus in your slice of rocas de reyes, or Three Kings cake. It all begins Dec. 16 when the first of nine daily Posada processions is held in neighbourhoods, towns and villages. The Posadas symbolize the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy with
99
$
Painting Starting At
00
* PER ROOM
3 room minimum. Paint & labour included. Ask for details.
But at the last house on the day’s route, the children are welcomed to go around back where there is a party with food, sparklers, games and a chance to swat the pinata. In the past, explains Maylen Crespo, pinatas were made of clay and took many mighty blows to crack and rain down candies and little toys. Now they’re constructed of paper maché in a star shape with seven points, each representative of the deadly sins.
On the last night of the Posadas, Christmas Eve, a manger and shepherds are added to the nativity scene at the designated host’s house. When the procession arrives, the children place a figure of the baby Jesus into the manger and then everyone heads to midnight, or rooster, mass. Christmas Day is spent with family. For Crespo, that meant gathering at her grandmother’s home with more than 30 relatives
We only use low VOC and ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY paint BOOK TODAY
604.803-5041
www.benchmarkpainting.ca
Brent Klemke OWNER/ MANAGER
to share a lavish dinner of traditional soup, turkey, green beans, cod and desert of a bread sweetened with raisins. The days following are spent visiting friends or enjoying one of the pastorelas, nativity plays with often satirical political overtones, that are presented by amateur and professional thespians in town squares, community and regional theatres. “It’s really fun,” says Crespo. Please see STOrY, A9