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November 28th, 2006

Posada

posadaThe Posada is, as far as I can gather, a Mexican celebration commemorating Mary and Joseph’s difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of ‘Posada’, a Spanish word for ‘shelter’ or ‘inn’ (depending which web page you believe). Posada-related websites:

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This is a single post on the Cartoon Blog by Dave posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 9:16 am. Click here to read all of the latest posts. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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12 Responses to “Posada”


  1. Karin says:

    Last year the library played host (pasada?) to Mary and Joseph for several days as they made their way around the town. Our church is organising one this year and I shall offer ‘posada’ for a day.

    November 28th, 2006 at 9:31 am
  2. jonah says:

    Just to clarify, the “posada” is a MEXICAN tradition, not a Spanish one. Spanish and Mexican are not adjectives that can be used interchangeably. Mexico is a country in North America and Spain is a country in Europe. Although Spain and Mexico have a few things in common (language may or may not be one of those things), it is incorrect to use the adjective “spanish” to describe something that is distinctly “mexican”. FYI.

    In Spain, we have much the same thing, but the nativity scenes are much more intricate and are called a “Belén” which means Bethlehem. As the name indicates, Belenes usually don’t limit themselves to the nativity scene. A Belen-maker will usually go to great pains to depict an intricate depiction of Bethlehem with everything from an automated carpenter cutting wood in his shop to a butcher butchering up a pig (no one ever said they were historically accurate) for sale the next day. I once witnessed a Belén that worked on a timer to show the difference between day and night. Every five minutes, the sun would set, the moon would come out and the lights would go down with small “fires” being lit in every house. A few minutes after that, the moon would disappear, the sun would rise and all the people in Bethlehem would get back to work. Hard to believe, but it is true.

    November 28th, 2006 at 10:24 am
  3. Dave says:

    Jonah – Sorry, I got my words jumbled up and wrote ‘Spanish’ the second time when I meant ‘Mexican’. I hadn’t intended to use the words interchangably. Apologies – I’ve edited the text.

    Thanks for the “Belén” description. Sounds very interesting.

    November 28th, 2006 at 10:38 am
  4. Karin says:

    I think I was told it was a Spanish custom as it happens. So it seems to be a Mexican variation of a Spanish custom.

    November 28th, 2006 at 10:42 am
  5. Tiffer says:

    I know the woman in the kenilworth link picture – scary!

    November 28th, 2006 at 10:47 am
  6. Sally says:

    For the last few years our church has adapted the Poseda idea, and had our Mary and Joseph figures travel around the parish and congregation during Advent. Each day they are delivered to the next household who give them a special welcome for the night.Leaving church on Advent Sunday, they have been brought back during the Christingle service on Christmas Eve.

    November 28th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
  7. Kate says:

    What a good idea. I will be checking some of the pictures out as they are posted. I had never heard of the Posada before!
    Kate.
    http://journals.aol.co.uk/bobandkate/AnAnalysisofLife/

    November 28th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
  8. Mary says:

    I like the cut-out nativity on that site – something I can do with the children :)

    November 29th, 2006 at 7:29 am
  9. Sarah B says:

    We had the Posada travelling around the homes of the church members during advent a few years running but we stopped it (which I thought was a shame really because it was really nice to have fellow church memebrs as guest for a cuppa one evening and then travel with the Posada to the next house hosting for a cuppa the next night. It meant that people who didn’t normally got to each other’s houses did so which I rather liked.

    November 29th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
  10. Andy says:

    try using Firefox if pop ups bug you…

    November 29th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
  11. Andii Bowsher says:

    Hi.
    First, thanks for offering to host the holy couple in an e-posada on their i-journey. Please find below a schedule which I hope will be okay.
    Secondly, please accept apologies for short notice if you are early on the list.
    What follows is an adaptation of instructions which will be appearing on the Nouslife blog as part of the first e-posada posting.

    I have simply tried to put them in order of offering. You’ll notice we get as far as 19 Dec so further recruitment or even offering to host on another of your blogs is great.

    Swaps are okay provided the chain of reference from one host to the next is not broken. Remember that the previous or next person in the chain may not know who you are so your predecessor will need a visit from you as soon after you have posted as you can manage to put a link in their comments so the rest of us can follow the trail to your posting.

    I suggest that everyone links to my ‘originating” Advent Sunday post post when it appears, so that it is easy to get back here in case there are new posters whom I shall add to the list. Could I also ask you to email me if you think that I don’t have your email address at this temporary (for the next few days) email address as I don’t have everyone’s contact details in case we need to do some troubleshooting. If you would check the blog addresses -I’ve made some educated guesses below- I can put corrections in here so people can get in the right vicinity if something goes awry.

    Mon 4 Dec Chris Munroe aka Desert Pastor.
    Tue 5 Dec Jem Clines
    Wed 6 Dec Alistair
    Thu 7 Dec Lydia
    Fri 8 Dec Jennie Swanson
    Sat 9 Dec Psalmist
    Sun 10 Dec Dr Platypus
    Mon 11 Dec Sally Coleman
    Tue 12 Dec Jim Palmer
    Wed 13 Dec Anne Gogh
    Thu 14 Dec Weekend Fisher
    Fri 15 Dec Dave
    Sat 16 Dec John Cooper
    Sun 17 Dec Sue Wallace at Abbess
    Mon 18 Dec Lucas
    Tue 19 Joanna at Keeping Feet

    Thanks, with prayer that this will be a venture that enriches us and all our readers with fuller appreciation of God’s gifts to us…
    -Andii

    December 2nd, 2006 at 5:11 pm
  12. Kelly says:

    hello! I live in Southern California, and various members of the Mexican-American (or Chicano/Chicana, if you prefer) community in our town “do” Posada. Around here, it works out to be a bit of a cross between a progressive dinner, caroling, and a (premature, I guess)Corpus Christi procession. Folks dress up as Joseph and Mary, and other people play the parts of the innkeeper, etc. Groups of families walk around neighborhoods, carrying candles and singing, as they go with the holy family to the houses where the scenes will be enacted. It is, of course, primarily a Catholic activity — when Anglos/ protestants do their versions, it is often used as a way to talk about immigrant issues, the homeless, and other aspects of Christian care for the poor.
    nice site you’ve got here!
    kcwc

    December 5th, 2006 at 8:18 am