Christmas Season
The Christmas season begins with the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 and continues until January 6…the Day of the Three Kings when presents are opened.
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe or Virgen de Guadalupe) commemorates the traditional account of her appearances to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through December 12, 1531. It is Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural image: Nobel laureate Octavio Paz wrote in 1974 that “the Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery!” On Guadalupe Feast Day people wait in line for hours to enter a church and kiss the foot of the Virgin. Little children are dressed up like the indigenous Indian children to whom the Virgin appeared.
During the Christmas season there is music, dancing and expositions of all kinds in the Zocalo and all around the Centro. One evening there were three music groups going all at once in the Zocalo including a Calenda with traditional indigenous dances in one corner in front of the Cathedral and a stage full of dancers demonstrating modern Mexican dance styles in another corner. A trio of flutes played indigenous folk music in the middle! And that’s not counting the guitarist and singer in one of the cafes and the poor roving singer with long black coat who sings a horrible loud version of “Oaxaca Oaxaca” and then expects you to give him money for your trouble!
Max and I went to a concert of 19th century classical Mexican music in the magnificent Macedonio Alcalá Theater two blocks east of the Zócalo. Constructed during the era of Porfirio Diaz in the early 1900’s, the renovated theater, full of gold decoration, is the home to world-class concerts, opera and ballet. One curiosity, however, was the North American features of the golden statues standing guard on each side of the stage. Diaz was trying to modernize Mexico after the Revolution but don’t know if this was symbolic of what he was aspiring to!
After a mescal with Max at CoCo’s, a worker’s cantina, and a little intercambio (language exchange) with Delia, the bartender, I walked home in the lovely night air. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the picture on the wall of the 350 pound naked woman lying on her side…a ubiquitous picture of the like in cantinas. Delia showed me Gerardo’s number on her cell phone. It doesn’t answer she said wistfully. I told her Gerardo has been in Puebla visiting his father and he probably is out of air time. Apparently Gerardo has been chatting her up. She is in her late 30’s and nice looking…and a very nice woman. I told her I had a muy guapo (very good looking) 39 year old hijo (son) who lives in Las Vegas and is available. Ohhhh, she said…tell him to come here! Nice try…
December 23 is the annual Night Of The Radishes in the Zocalo. La Noche de Rábanos has been a focal point of Christmas celebrations for more than a century. Combining folk art and agriculture, it is one of the most unique festivals in the world.
The Noche de Rabanos lasts only a few hours as vegetables have a limited lifespan as folk art. Artisans carve huge radishes grown with chemicals (these are not for eating) into ornate sculptures ranging from small animals and human figures to representations of grand events including the Gueleguetza Dance and Nativity scenes. The radishes are heavy long ones, seemingly without grace, but the artisans can carve the skirt of a dancing figure fashioned out of just the red peel and perforated like eyelet lace.
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The Zócalo has a radiant canopy of Christmas lights, and in the late afternoon of the 23rd, crowds of townsfolk and tourists begin to flow into the central square. When I walked up about 7pm the line had already formed all the way down Bustamante St. with lights and rows and rows of Mexican papeles picados (“placemat” rice paper cut-outs) strung overhead leading to the Zocalo. People patiently form cues to pass slowly on raised platforms encircling the Zócalo that have been erected in front of the competitors’ tables to enable better viewing. No way was I going to stand in that line so when I spotted Ana (she is over 6 feet tall and quite an attraction to the young men here) I asked her to take some pictures of the radish scenes high over the heads of the people. At 10pm the fireworks started. It is an amazing experience to stand right under the falling sparkles. In the States viewers are normally kept well back from the fireworks itself. At the end sparklers had been strung across the entire width of the top of the Cathedral….when lit pouring like rain water down the face of the building. Ohhhs and ahhhs abounded.
The Spanish first brought radishes to Mexico in the 16th century. Some historians mention garden contests during Colonial times. The Dominican friars took the lead in developing vegetable gardens for the young community of Antequera, now Oaxaca City. Legend tells of two Spanish friars who encouraged the Indians from the area around Oaxaca to cultivate produce in the lowlands, irrigated by the Atoyac River. One of the monks suggested that the farmers carve the radishes into imaginative shapes. This would entice people to visit the market and buy the produce. The tradition of displaying carved radishes may have originated in the Christmas Vigil market held on the 23rd of December.
Three centuries later records show that the Mayor of Oaxaca, Francisco Vasconcelos Flores formalized the exhibition of Christmas-inspired horticulture in 1897 at the Zócalo. The event has been celebrated each year ever since.
Christmas Eve, immediate families have dinner between 11 and 12pm. At 12 fireworks can be heard all over the city in spite of the fact that they are illegal in Mexico! This is not exactly the land of the rule of law! My landlord, Gerardo, invited the apartment dwellers (Joe had left to see his family in Chicago) to their home for dinner. Gerardo’s sister, a law student in Puebla, was home for Christmas break. Before dinner all of us except Socorro, Gerardo’s mother, stood outside the closed door and sang a call to the Christ child. Inside Socorro sang the responses. Then dinner. Socorro had made a muy rico chicken chipotle on a standing charcoal grill which we ate with hot guacamole, french bread, macaroni salad, black beans and the ubiquitous jello mold. Then dancing with each other until 2pm when I begged to go home. The manager’s party in the apartment courtyard was still going so I left my car out in the street for the night.
I was invited Christmas day to return to Gerardo and Socorro’s home with Ana and Steve for dinner with the extended family but my other friend Gerardo was coming over for a mescal so I ended up taking a nap from 4 until 9pm. I am getting too old for all this!
My Christmas presents this year were successful calls on Skype to Josh and Amy in Beijing and calls from Greg and Doug in the States. I told Josh that Amy’s mom and I had been having trouble getting ahold of them on the phone. He said they had been unplugging their phone at night because of unsolicited calls. I told him the calls were from prostitutes calling random numbers! He was speechless. Greg is paying for most of my plane ticket, for my Christmas present, to Las Vegas on Friday. I will return on Jan 5…a nice break.
Tags: Christmas, Festivals & Ceremonies, Las Vegas, Mexico, Oaxaca, Zocalo
Zoe
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