CVC's Christmas in Mexico!

Christmas in
MEXICO
christmas wreath Click the button to hear the CVCHS Spanish Class sing Feliz Navidad via RealAudio Spanish!

EMAIL from Mexico on CHRISTMAS

Muchos saludos desde Merida,

Aqui la Navidad es algo precioso y celebramos unas fiestas bien bonitas
para celebrar el nacimiento de Jesus.

Gracias por su carta y espero que tu proyecto tenga gran exito.

Well, thanks for your letter.  By the way where is Central Valley
Chrisitian High school?  I assume it is in the San Fernando Valley.  I
went through there a few years ago and had a good time visiting churches
all along I-5.

We celebrate Christmas here with a lot of special church services.  This
coming Saturday we will have a Christmas dinner where a mission of our
church will combine with us and have a joint supper.  We often sing some
Christmas songs at something like that.

Last week we had a special chapel at seminary which consisted entirely
of singing Christmas songs.  The choir director made all the teachers
get up and sing for the student body.  They also tried some of the
caroles in English.

The young people of our Jardines church are putting on a Christmas
drama.  They have been practicing a couple of weeks already.  Daughter
Becky (age 18) is in the play.  You can have some of your students ask
her what part she has.   Son David (age 15) did the video taping of one
of the rehearsals so that the actors could see themselves and try
correct what ever looks wrong.  Nathanael is twelve.  All three are
familiar with Email.

I have an electronic mail box at one of the local financial money
exchange houses.  Finred stands for "financial net".  It costs me 11
dollars for thirty hours of online time per month.  Finred has a home
page which you could probably find with one of the search engines.

I checked my calendar and noticed that one of our seminarians has
invited me to show the Jesus film in the Mayan language at a village out
past Yaxhuna.  This is a place about a half hour's drive south of
Chichen Itza.   Yaxhuna also has a lot of Mayan ruins but not as
extensive as Chichen Itza.  You could find lots of info about Chichen on
the Internet.

The Finred people have offerred to set up a Home page for me but I
haven't the time to get into that.  Email is using up more time than I
expected.

Daughter Mimi is at Dordt.  Her email address is:  mmvn@dordt.edu

Son Jonathan is at Columbia Law School in New York.  His address is:

                 jvane@law.columbia.edu

Send an encouraging note to Patricia Ryan.  They serve as tutors for our
younger children.  She fell last week in Michigan and broke her left
arm.  Her address is:

                FRANR4570@aol.com

Well, I have some papers to grade and then have to take off for school.
Another teacher just called me for a ride but I don't have class the
first hour so he has to find other wheels.  I've spent a couple of hours
this morning typing on a Hebrew course I'll be teaching in January.  I
doubt that the hebrew characters would make it through the Internet.

Shalom,   Juan

More on Christmas in Mexico via Email

Hi again. Thanks to you and your students for your continued prayer support. It is encouraging to know that you remember us.

I work in various countries in Latin America but I know Christmas customs in Mexico best, because that is where I ofter was in December. One unique Mexican custom is "Las Posadas". This is a symbolic enactment of Joseph and Mary's journey to Bethlehem and search for a place to stay. The children parade through the streets, singing special songs (posadas) until thy come to the home of a member of the church. But each night they are refused entrance into the home because there is no room for them, until on Christmas Eve, at a prearranged home they are told there is room and they are invited in. The adults have already gathered there and they all have a party in that home. One of the traditional foods is a special kind of fish.

Also, in Latin America, Christmas was not a day for giving and receiving gifts. That was done on January 6, Kings' Day, the day on which the wise men supposedly arrived in Bethlehem and gave their gifts to the baby Jesus. But nowadays, commercialism has taken over and Christmas presents and Santa Claus are quite popular, especially in the cities.

I hope this adds a little bit to your knowledge of Christmas customs in other countries.

Winabelle Gritter

Several weeks before Christmas, elaborately decorated market stalls or puestos are set up in the plazas of every town and city. Some people travel for days from remote areas to get to these markets. The puestos offer crafts of every conceivable kind, foods such as cheese, bananas, nuts, and cookies, and flowers such as orchids and poinsettias.

The poinsettia is native to Mexico and is believed to have first been used in connection with Christmas in the 17th century when Mexican Franciscans included the flowers in their Christmas celebration. There is a legend connected with the flower. A little boy named Pablo was walking to the church in his village to visit the Nativity scene, when he realized he had nothing to offer the Christ Child. He saw some green branches growing along the roadside and gathered them up. Other children scoffed, but when he laid them by the manger, a brilliant red star-shaped flower appeared on each branch.

The main Christmas celebration in Mexico is called las posadas, which refers to processions reenacting Joseph and Mary's search for a place to stay in Bethlehem. The processions begin nine days before Christmas because the original journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem took nine days. Friends and family members divide themselves into two groups - pilgrims and innkeepers. The pilgrims travel from house to house asking for a shelter and are refused at each until they finally reach the house where an alter and Nativity scene have been set up. Here the pilgrims are admitted with great rejoicing, a traditional prayer is spoken, and the party begins. Food and drink are served and then children take turns trying to break open the pinata.

____________Two turtle doves_______________

Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad!
Feliz Navidad! Prospero año y felicidad!
Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad!
Feliz Navidad! Prospero año y felicidad!

Te deseo paz y alegria, te deseo paz y alegria.
Te deseo paz y alegria del fondo de mi corazon.
Te deseo paz y alegria, te deseo paz y alegria.
Te deseo paz y alegria del fondo de mi corazon.

Return to Drennon Dolphin Websurfer

Return to Central Valley Christian School's home page

Return to Central Valley Christian School's home page
Go to CVC's SUPER SEARCH page
Copyright © 1996, 1997 CVC
last updated 12/3/97

For this site:
You are visitor number 13346783
Thanks for your visit!