The Christmas flower is actually Mexican!
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| Thank the Mexicans for making these a Christmas thing. Photo credit: David Flores licensed CC BY 2.0 |
An 16th century Mexican legend goes that there was once a girl named Pepita who was too poor to buy any gifts for baby Jesus on a Christmas Eve. Urged by Pedro, her cousin, she made a bouquet of wild weeds and took it to the chapel. That’s all she could afford. But then, as she placed the bouquet of weeds at the altar and knelt before Jesus, the weeds turned into bright red flowers. This miracle gave those flowers a sudden spotlight and they became an instant Christmas icon. These were poinsettias, better known to the Mexicans as los flores de Noche Buena. Noche is Spanish for night and buena is Spanish for good. But Nochebuena doesn’t translate into good night; it translates into “the Good Night,” i.e. the Christmas Eve. The star-shaped leaves of this plant symbolize the Star of Bethlehem and the crimson color of the flower itself is seen as an allusion to the crucifixion and sacrifice of Christ. Cool story, no?
The Aztecs call them Cuetlaxochitl, meaning flower that grows in residues, and you can learn this name if you wish to sound real indigenous! Remember cempasúchil (marigold), the flower of the Day of the Dead? Well, Cuetlaxochitl is to Christmas what cempasúchil is to the Day of the Dead. Non-indigenous Mexicans and Guatemalans, however, refer to it as simply flor de Noche Buena, i.e. Christmas Eve flower. In Spain, the flower is better associated with Easter which is why they refer to it as flor de Pascua; Pascua is Easter in Spanish.
But how did it come to be known as poinsettia in the first place? If the flower is native to Mexico, shouldn’t it have a more Spanish-sounding name? Well, that’s another story. There was this dude named Joel Roberts Poinsett who happened to be the first American Ambassador to Mexico back in the 1820s. He spotted these flowers on a trip to Taco in 1828 and instantly went bonkers over them. So much so that he brought them to his plantation in South Carolina and cultivated a whole lot of them. Talk about obsession! This obsession, however, didn’t go unnoticed and by mid-1830s, the flowers were already being called poinsettias.
Posadas
We all know the story of Christmas and how Joseph and Mary had a hard time securing a cozy corner for the night in Bethlehem. The Mexicans, and most Latin Americans, reinforce this every year in a curious tradition known as the Posadas. Posada is Spanish for inn. Think you’ll forget the word? Try some etymology. Posada comes from the verb posar, meaning to rest. Posar itself comes from Latin pausare which gives us the English word pause! After all, resting is not very different from taking a break, i.e. pause, is it? And that’s what inns are meant for.
So what’s the deal with inns and Christmas? In Mexico, Kids would enact the whole Bethlehem episode every night from December 16 through the Christmas Eve. The enactment involves kids taking out a procession during the night, carrying candles and painted clay figurines of Joseph and Mary. They go from house to house singing carols at each stop asking for refuge. These processions are colloquially referred to as posadas. Each house is decorated with paper lanterns, moss, and wreaths for the posadas. The enactment mandates that the children are refused at each house (just as it went down with Joseph and Mary back in the day) except for one last house where they’re finally welcome. This is the house where they go in, say the prayers, and have a big fiesta complete with food, candies, and fireworks. This last house is also known as posada and a different family is chosen to play the host each night.
The carols those kids sing, by the way, are known in Spanish as los villancicos. The word comes from villano, Spanish for peasant. The etymology makes perfect sense since carols did originate as folk songs sung by the peasants back in the day. Think carols, think villagers and you’ll easily recall villancicos.
On the night of Christmas Eve, the kids, along with their families, attend a special Midnight Mass at the local church. Now, midnight services are common with Christmas everywhere in the world but this one is different. How? This one is known as Misa del Gallo or, the Mass of the Rooster! Don’t ask me why this peculiar association but it’s fun enough to stick to memory, isn’t it?
The Nativity is literally big in Mexico!
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| Grand Nativity scenes are commonplace in Mexico Photo credit: Nacho licensed CC BY 2.0 |
Although a typical Mexican Nativity scene consists of several characters, not all of them are brought together at once. The scene starts without the baby Jesus, which gets added only on the evening of Christmas Eve, and the Three Kings, which get added on the day of Epiphany, i.e. January 6.
The Spanish word for Nativity is nacimiento. It comes from the verb nacer which means to be born. Both nacimiento and nacer should be easy to memorize and remember if you consider their English cousin, nascent. Recognize the term?
Move aside Santa, we got the Kings
Christmas is all about exchanging gifts. And who does the job better than the fat old man from Scandinavia! Well, not so much in Mexico. I mean, yes, Santa is your man in most of northern Mexico, thanks to its neighbor up north. But for most of the South, gifts come from the Three Kings instead. That’s no problem gift-wise, except that kids in those regions have a longer wait. Why? Because the Three Kings only visit you on the day of Epiphany, i.e. January 6! Some kids also get their gifts from the guy called El Niñito Dios, i.e. Baby Jesus. Even the ones who recognize the good old Santa, know him as Santo Clós.
Epiphany, by the way, is Día de los Reyes and the reason is obvious – Rey is Spanish for king and comes from the same Latin root that gives us words like royal and regal. In Mexico, it’s customary to eat a special cake on that day, aptly referred to as rosca de reyes. What’s so special about this cake? It’s a figure of baby Jesus hidden inside it. Whoever gets the piece with the baby inside gets to be Jesus’ godparent for the year!
The idea of receiving gifts on Epiphany instead of Christmas Eve is not confined to Mexico. Venezuelans do that too. In fact, Venezuelan customs differ in one more aspect. Kids don’t put out stocking for Santa to fill with candies. Instead, they put out their shoes for the Reyes Magos! Yes they get their candies in shoes instead of stockings!
The season, the Marathon
Like most of the Western world, Christmas season lasts from the middle of December all the way through the day of Epiphany in the Spanish speaking world. In the interim, the Latinos also observe a day called Día de los Santos Inocentes or, the Day of the Innocent Saints. This falls on December 28 and is a homage to the babies that were murdered by King Herod in an attempt to eliminate baby Jesus. But despite the somber origins, the day is celebrated in a very lighthearted manner and is Latin America’s answer to the English-speaking world’s April Fools’ Day.
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| Ever seen Nativity scenes carved out of radishes? Photo credit: Tehuanos licensed CC BY 2.0 |
Epiphany marks the end of Christmas in most parts of the world. But not in Mexico. There, the spirit of Christmas officially ends only on February 2. This day, known as Candlemas or Candelaria, is marked by plenty of feasting and drinking and is yet another occasion for the kids to bring out their piñatas. Many Mexicans refer to the entire Christmas season as the Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon and that’s because, to them, Christmas begins on December 12 (the feast of Guadalupe) and ends on January 6 (the Día de los Reyes).
In Colombia, though, the season officially begins much earlier on December 7, the Day of Little Candles or El Día de las Velitas. Needless to say, velita is a diminutive of vela, Spanish for candle. The word derives from the same source that gives us vigil so should be easy to remember. This day honors the Immaculate Conception which is officially observed by the Church the next day. On this day, families light candles and place them on the sidewalks. You can imagine how cool it must look in the night!
Oh and before I forget, Feliz Navidad! That’s Spanish for Merry Christmas. Feliz means happy and is easy to memorize because it’s related to felicity, the English word related to happiness. Navidad means Christmas and comes from natividad, a word in Old Spanish meaning nativity. All these words are related to English words pertaining to birth, such as native, nascent, etc.
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