Las Posadas: A Mexican Christmas Celebration

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations. 

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The holidays are a great time to learn about a variety of cultures! One of the many holidays from around the world my Pre-K class will learn about in the coming weeks will be Las Posadas, a Mexican Christmas celebration. My Sunday School class learned a little about Las Posadas this week, and I thought I would share some of the fun we had with you!

Las Posadas is a nine day celebration (nine days to represent the nine months Mary carried Jesus). During that time, families take turns  each night re-enacting the Christmas story in their homes to symbolize  Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. Two family members dress up as Mary and Joseph, and the home is the "inn". A procession follows Mary and Joseph to the "inn" and when the innkeeper lets them in, the procession follows and the guests come in to kneel and pray in front of the nativity scene. At the end of the journey, Christmas carols are sung and often children take turns to try to break a pinata filled with treats.

In our church this year, families will take turns to host statues of Mary and Joseph, each night staying at a different home. This week, our Sunday School class read Tomie dePaola's "The Night of Las Posadas". 

We then made Mary, Joseph and burro statues from clay. The children were very creative making their statues! We listened to multicultural holiday music as we worked. It was a lovely way to explore the holiday traditions of another culture.

We also talked about some of the German Christmas traditions and had a little German holiday snack!

The holidays are such a great time to enjoy traditions from all over.  Kindness, joy and and love are universal, no matter which country or faith you hail from. I hope however you celebrate this winter, that your holidays are merry and bright!

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