Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año

This photo is of the parish church here in San Lucas.

(see if you can find me in the bottom right corner)

Here are some of the local kids getting ready for the Christmas Posada (parade).
It was such a beautiful experience, there was a posada each night during the twelve days leading up to Christmas. The parade is symbolic of Mary and Joseph wandering through Bethlehem looking for a place to rest. Each night the crowd walks around town, singing Christmas carols, carrying these candle-lanterns and ends up at a different person´s house, inquiring if there is any room for us (and the nativity set powered by a loud, smoky generator carried in a wheelbarrel behind the crowd).

It was quite a beautiful picture: we the parade sang a stanza explaining that we were Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay and then the people inside the house would sing back to us that there was no room and then we would sing, "but please, it is very cold and Mary is expecting a baby" and so on back and forth AND finally in the last stanza the people inside the house decide to open their doors and LET US IN and there is much rejoicing as the parade is welcomed to partake of the warm company, the popcorn in a bag andthe Caliente (hot yummy, Christmas drink of pineapple and cinnamon origin).

Here is the hostess one night passing out the Caliente.

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Celebrating the Tamale:

In preparation for the Christmas season, I asked different people how they and their families celebrated Christmas and the only answer I ever got (although I know many people in the markets are buying little Christmas gifts for friends and family), the main focus is on the ::: TAMALES!!

Tamales are the quintessential Christmas cuisine here in Guatemala, but they don´t look like the tamales common to Mexico/Texas wrapped in corn husks, instead they are wrapped in large green leaves, tied up with twine like a present and inside each one you find a secret prune, raisin, piece of chicken and two green olives smothered in the traditional tamale sauce mixed with corn meal)

mmm, mnmm, seriously these were indeed such a treat. I think I got to eat about five different TAMALES throughout the Christmas week.