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I just received this email from my son-in-law, Joy's husband, who lives in Puerto Vallarta.  I find it very interesting and thought you would as well. 

A merry Christmas to all of you, my friends.  It is Christmas morning here, bright blue skies and about 78 degrees at 10 AM. the ocean is like a blue plate of glass, and BOY, is it quiet!  My first authentic Mexican Christmas even though I have been here for several Christmas'.  Last night I was invited to attend a Mexican's family Christmas as one of their own.

I have learned to love these peoples' culture and way of life.  Their quick smiles, a laidback attitude towards things that would drive Americans nuts.  And particularily, there is a heightened sense of family and koinania.  My landlord, who has become a close friend and associate, invited me to join his family.  Since this is a matriarchal country (at least in the home) it was fascinating to see the women at work and their total dominance over food, serving, cleanup, decorating, etc.  Ivan's aunt hosted this years gala who has a huge yard where everything took place.    It all started at 8pm with sociallizing and drinking.  We had more than 50 familiy members, and me.  Kind of stood out.  Lots of hugs and kisses from everyone and was a great chance to practice my Spanish.  Between my fractured linguistics and their better English we had lots of laughs and a good time.

My gift last night was to set up my music stuff and play guitar for several hours.  Most never heard a light jazz guitar sound before and gave round after round of standing ovations.  But then again, these are tolerant people who are quick to laugh. 

I am actually writing to share the festivities with you.  Very different and steeped in culture.  At about 10pm (still haven't eaten yet) everyone grabs a candle and heads out into the streets.  This is downtown Puerto Vallarta so there are lots of homes.  At the front of our 50 people gang are 2 of our teenagers dressed as Mary and Joseph.  We wandered the streets singing a Mexican Christmas song I never heard before.  We would knock on doors and sing this song which was a question of "Do you have room at your inn?"  People would shake their heads and close the door on you.  Down the street singing this slow, mournful, Christmas song.  After about 45 minutes of singing we returned to our place where all the women, except "Mary", entered the yard and locked the gate.  The men would then sing the song and women would answer.  The songs flavor changed and became more upbeat.  The back and forth song lasted quite awhile until finally the women unlocked the gate, let us in, and all moved over to a gigantic Nativity scene set up in the yard.  Typical scene you see everywhere except no Baby Jesus.  Our procession moved to the scene where "Mary" places a little Jesus in the cradle all the while we are singing Christmas songs.  Typed strips of paper were handed out with scripted parts.  A dialog between angles, sheperds and people take place to honor Baby Jesus.  Of particular interest to me was a long passage of speaking which I couldn't translate fast enough but the audiences response was "Jesus is King, Jesus is Lord". 

Then we ate.  All the ladies brought their special dish.  Fabulous styles of chicken, turkey and fish.  No ham.  And about 15 kinds of desserts.  Just about every lady would cut a piece of her specialty and bring it over to me to try.  Couldn't say no.  A particularily hard evening since I was sick this week and lost 11 pounds.  First real meal other than a salad on Thursday. 

After dinner was the pinatas whacking time.  I have learned the history of the pinata while down here.  You really have to be here the entire month of December to feel the entire sense of Christmas.  Celebration starts on December 1 where for 12 days we celebrate the Posada.  It is a veneration of The Guadalupe of Mexico, a vision of Mary given to Mexico in the 1500's.  Parades everynight on city streets (try getting around a parade in your car!) and on the 13th the 12 days of Christmas start.  Nightly fireworks, parades, music festivals etc.  But back to our pinatas.  In Mexico, the pinata started as a symbol used at Christmas time exclusively.  A star-shaped pinata was hauled up a tree whacked until it split open.  Things inside spilled out on the ground (later candy was added).  The symbolism is the pinata represented "sin" in our life and the hitting of the pinata "broke" the control of sin's influence in our life.  Just a side note in how things evolve. 

At 2am, most of us old people went home but a lot were going to continue on foot downtown to the Malecon, the boardwalk seawall we have here.  More music, strolling, work off the dinner and more community.  At 2am there were still gaggles of people on the streets.  No one had turned off the music yet.

So here I am, sitting in the quiet.  Now it is 11am and still not a car or pedestrian has walked by.  Very strange.

Here is to wishing you were here to share these special times.  God is good, all the tme!  Merry Christmas.

John Stephan

Thank you for sharing.  It is always interesting to hear of other people's traditions.

Thank you Jane for sharing your son in law's Christmas with us.

Jane, my niece, Anna (Sue's daughter), experienced this one Christmas in Mexico.  All I actually remember is that they gathered as family, and then went into the streets and to houses.   It sounds as though John really enjoyed being a part of their authentic Mexican customs.

Thanks for posting this so we could read about it too.

Wow!  That was certainly interesting, Jane.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Hi Jane (jay-walker...LOL)....that was fun to read.  Thanks for sharing!

- Judy M.

That's fantastic!  Made me want to be there!  Jesus is Lord!  Jesus is King!  Oh the wonderful fellowship of that celebration!  Oh Lord, bless them with real understanding!  Thanks so very much, Jane!