What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?

This year there were fire crackers instead of fireworks.  This year there was a burning doll instead of a dropping ball.  This year there was samba and salsa instead o two-step and swing.  This year there was a meal at 1 am instead of at 10 pm.  This year there was bingo instead of football.  This year there were flats instead of heels.  This year I spent it in the streets instead of inside.  But this year, like all the rest I spent it with many, many friends.

Like Christmas’ Eve, New Year’s Eve our neighbors spend in the street, running around greeting everyone.  There is more activity and are more people running around on New Year’s Eve.  All the kids are up, no matter how young.  The big event isn’t a countdown to a ball dropping, but a sudden explosion of firecrackers.  The boys, and men, spend countless hours making life-size effigies to signify all the bad that has happened in the past year.  These dolls are FULL of firecrackers.   After a little singing, high-fiving and jumping around, the more courageous guys light the dolls on fire and everyone runs for cover – close enough to watch and shutter at the sound but hopefully far enough away to not be hit by flying debris.  Once the show is over dancing and dining commence. 

We used this time after the dolls to visit friend in their homes … and eat and dance too.  Then we turned in early, at 3 am!

The next day we joined friends for lunch and a game of picture Bingo.  A family of eight, many with children of their own, invited us into their house.  It felt like home … a different home, but a home where I belong.

Caminando por Tegucigalpa en la noche de la Navidad …

… Walking through Tegucigalpa on Christmas Night ...

The group walking home one afternoon afte Las Posadas

This title is the opening line of a song which is now dear to my heart.  It is one of the Christmas carols we sang almost every Posada in the nine days leading up to Christmas Eve.  Las Posadas are a Mexican Christmas tradition which has been fully embraced in Central America.  It my neighborhood it has been modified from its original form.

Joseph knocking on the door

Each of the 8 days we celebrated Las Posadas the children arrive at our house around 4 pm.  Two girls dress up like Mary, the mother of Jesus, and two boys like Joseph, her husband.  Then we set out singing in two groups, each with guitar and chorus, to visit houses in the neighborhood.  As we walk through the cobblestone streets and narrow alleyways of our neighborhood, past pigs and puppies, children, young and old, join us as pilgrims in search of a place for Mary to have her baby.  Once we arrive at our first destination, half the group goes inside with the hosts, shutting the door behind them.  The pint-sized Joseph remains outside with his tiny wife and the rest of the pilgrims.  He knocks on the door and as the guitar begins a song.  Those inside sing the part of the Inn Keeper who at first refuses the couple and complains that they are a nuisance but finally gives admittance.  Outside the other group responds singing the part of Joseph, begging for a place of rest for his wife.  At the end of the song the tempo picks up and everyone joyfully enter the house. 

Singing carols ... as loud as possible!

Once inside someone reads a part of the Christmas story and shares a little devotional.  We pray.  We sing another Christmas carol or two.  Then usually the family gives the pilgrims something to eat and drink.  Finally, we move on to our next house with the family of the first house joining the journey.

Las Posadas have become a very important part of the Christmas celebration in our neighborhood.  Our friends clean their houses, put on their Sunday best and decorate to receive Las Posadas.  Some cook all day, others spend a few precious Limpiras to buy a soft drink and some cookies.  None of this is necessary, but it is done as a sign of love and out of joy.  And each year it grows as more friends want to participate.  This year over 90 families opened their doors.

One of my little friends, Mario, is five years old.  It is hard to imagine a five year old on the fast track to no-where-good, but he sadly is.  The very first day he wanted to be Joseph.  He joined us almost every day.  Sometimes he misbehaved.  Other times he was an angle.  When Las Posadas ended, he was sad.   He wants us to continue them all year long.  If only we could!!!

Getting ready to leave for posadas ... the second set that night

Joy to the World

December 25^th – MERRY CHRISTMAS!  I hope your day was full of joy and time with your family, either your relatives or your adopted family.  My day was full of both … and my family here is full of love and warmth, joking and laughing … just like my family back home.

One of my little friends told me today that her sister had a baby.  She is one of my friends in most need of love and affection, the same little friend who fell asleep in my arms during Las Posadas.  I thought it was so appropriate that she receive this little gift on Christmas day, a new bundle of joy.

Today was full of cooking!  After going to church this morning, we had a simple Christmas brunch.  I spent the day cooking.   Three little helpers stopped by to wish us Merry Christmas while the others were resting.  I invited them up.  We had cookies and coke to celebrated Jesus´ birthday together and then helped me prepare the green bean casserole.  After that, they colored pictures to take home to their infirm grandmother as a gift.

Joy and St. Nick went to deliver donation bags to the family who is the most in need in our acquaintance.  They spent the afternoon with them playing games with the kids and talking with the adults.  Padrito had masses to celebrate and Grace prepared the house for the evening.  At 3 pm Grace and two of our teens came to help me.  And at 6 pm our twenty-two teens began arriving for our Christmas dinner of chicken, rice and green bean casserole.  Before dinner we sang carols and after dinner we had a secret Santa gift exchange.  The day was completed by talking with my family.  Today, though far from home, I felt at home, because we celebrated the day with love and with dear friends.

Silent Night (Or Night not so Silent)

Saturday, December 24^th we invited a family to join to us for lunch, and we ate out Christmas Turkey.  I got to cook the meal, which I loved.  We have an aperitif, a gift from a friend, and ended with a traditional Honduran dessert, Rosquillas de Miel.  Then we went out to deliver gift bags to six of the poorest families in our neighborhood.  We received donations from three different groups and were able to make generous gift bags of food and cleaning products to give to each.  It was wonderful to be able to do something special for these friends. 

After Midnight Mass, we went out visiting.  Here everyone is outside in the streets the night of Christmas Eve.  Everyone has something new to wear and everyone if celebrating.  The kids buy bags of fire crackers, which they play with.  We went to the home of a friend for the Midnight festivities.  At midnight the family gathered around the Cresh while one little one put Jesus in with help and others sang.  Then we had a Christmas Toast with sparkling grape juice and everyone hugged and kissed each other on the cheek to wish each other a Merry Christmas.  Finally, the kids were dismissed to run to the back of the house where Santa had passed leaving a gift for each child.

Two minutes before midnight our neighborhood erupted! It sounded like every child in the neighborhood ignited a fire cracker at exactly the same time, many small ones, some normal ones and some so large they sounded like bombs.  The neighborhood poured into the streets with sparklers and handheld fireworks.  The celebration lasted for at least 20 minutes, after which my ears were ringing.  Again we went out to visit our friends in the streets … hugging and kissing the cheek of each person we met. 

The night ended in the house of a family we are very close to which has three teenage daughters and a teenage son.  They were just finishing their Christmas dinner and shared it with us.  After catching up with them, it had only been a few hours since we last saw them; we played Jenga until after 2 am.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Thursday, December 22^nd before Christmas we went to the women´s prison where our teens presented the Christmas Story acting it out in dialogue and song.   This was a huge success!  Another church was there with donations of clothing (the residents wear normal clothes) and food, so almost the entire prison was present.  They sang along to traditional Honduran Christmas carols and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the presentation.  One of the babies (women with children under the age of two are allowed to have their babies so that they can nurse and care for them) was Jesus.  He was perfect.  After being passed from one teen to another while we got ready (we were 20 in total), he slept soundly in my arms for the entire presentation until his grand moment when the angle placed him in the cresh.  At the finale he woke up to raise his little hands in the air and then fall asleep again.  After the show, he returned to his mother who was beeming with pride.  The afternoon ended with an impromptu game of soccer with our teens and many of the women.

Bus to the Women´s Prison

Stage in the openair pavillion at the prison

Little Baby Jesus Sleeping

Friday, December 23^rd we presented the show in out patio.  We invited everyone we talked to in the days leading up to the show and at my last count, 117 people came, with more arriving during the show.  The teens loved it and performed even better in our house than in the prison.  And the crowd enjoyed it also.  Everyone sang along to the carols which served as an interlude between each scene.  At the end, we all ate the Honduran version of our tamales, Nacatamales, and drank coke and mingled.  It seems like to whole neighborhood pitched in to the dinner. Some donated a chicken, others a bottle of soda or a bag or rice.  Others gave money to cover the cost and others worked for two days making the food.  In my eyes, it was a huge success.

Our cresh with banana palms

Finale!

It’s Christmas Time in the City

Christmas Season in Honduras is full of song, food, visits and joy!  I love it! 

A cool front arrived just in time Christmas Eve, that night.  So I wore a sweater to Midnight Mass and today there is just a bit of cool in the breeze … it is really nice!  We started celebrating 9 days before Christmas with Las Posadas. One friend and local benefactor invited us for a Christmas luncheon in her house with her mother the week before Christmas and gave us a Turkey to use for Christmas Eve dinner.  Another dear friend and benefactor invited us and eight of our teens to a Christmas Dinner (otherwise known as a feast) in her house the Sunday before Christmas.  Her whole family was there and we spent the night singing, dancing, praying, eating, laughing and celebrating.  

Another friend invited us to Christmas Dinner in her house with her three children.  The night ended in singing Christmas carols in four different language with Padrito and St. Nick playing the guitar.  It was such a lovely celebration and really felt like a Christmas at home, only with my new family.

Here are some pictures from our the dinner at our friend´s house with the teen -

Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly

I saw my first Christmas tree shortly after I arrived in October, but decorations were not in full swing until the end of November.  Like the US, here Christmas Trees, Nativity Scenes and Christmas lights adorn houses rich and poor, but the style is different.  Great attention is paid to the nativity scenes.  They are not just a cresh, but often an entire village of figurines, complete with colored sand and wood shavings.  This is one of my favorites.

But sometimes they are very simple too!  In the house of one of our friends we encountered another one of my favorites.  It was two statues, one of Mary and one of Joseph on a table covered with a white sheet.  In between them was a single white candle glowing brightly.  Here you do not put baby Jesus into his cresh until he arrives at Midnight on Christmas Eve. 

All the Christmas Trees, all stored carefully at the end of the Season to be used the following year, have ribbon wrapping them.  Some also have balls, others poinsettia flowers or butterflies.  Bows of sorts decorate the tip top instead of angles and stars.  And usually the tree is one or two colors – red and gold being the most prevalent.  Tensile and apples are also popular decorations.  Many are very beautiful and look like they belong in a catalog.

My neighbors love blinking lights.  They blink on the trees and they blink outside of the houses.  Most homes only have them inside, but one in ten has a few strands outside too.  It is nice to see our neighborhood so festively decorated!

We decorated our house too!  We have a little Christmas tree, a gift from years ago, complete with its blinking lights.  And we have a nativity scene which we made in the local style.

I made an advent calendar for us to use … but didn´t complete it until the second week of December … so I supposed it will get more use next year.  And we all worked on our handmade advent wreath.  I think it turned out quite well!  When we were working on it, my housemates laughed about how I would make a good preschool teacher, creating something out of poster board, crayons and some wire!