LA NAVIDAD HISPANA

1. LA NAVIDAD HISPANA

2. INTRODUCCIÓN • The main difference between a Hispanic Christmas and the Anglo Saxon version is the importance of the 6th of January. This is when presents are given to children. • Schools have a recess from December 22nd to January 7th. • Families eat together on Christmas Eve. • The Christmas season doesn’t build up until later.

3. DÍAS FESTIVOS

4. Vocabulario navideño

5. COMIDA

6. Polvorón Turrón (blando) Turrón (duro)

7. EVENTS: LAS POSADAS • A nine-day celebration celebrated chiefly in Mexico, Guatemalaand parts of the Southwestern United States, beginning December 16th and ending December 24th. • Posada means “lodging” or “accommodation.” The nine day novena represents the nine months of pregnancy. • It may have been started in the 16th century by early friars who combined Spanish Catholicism with the December Azteccelebration of the birth of Huitzilopochtli.

8. Typically, each family in a neighborhood will schedule a night for the posada to be held at their home. Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (los peregrinos), who have to request lodging by going house to house singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. All the pilgrims carry small lit candles in their hands, and four people carry statuettes of Joseph leading a donkey, on which Mary is riding.

9. At each house, the resident responds by refusing lodging, until the travelers reach the designated site for the party, where Mary and Joseph are finally recognized and allowed to enter. Once the “innkeepers” let them in, the group of guests come into the home and kneel around the nativity scene to pray.

11. LA LOTERÍA DE NAVIDAD • The Spanish Christmas Lottery (Sorteo de Navidad or Lotería de Navidad) is a national lottery game organized every year since 1812 by a branch of the Spanish Public Administration (Loterías y Apuestas del Estado). • As measured by the total prize payout, the Christmas Lottery is considered the biggest lottery worldwide. • In 2011, the winning number for the first category called El Gordo was 58268. If you had a winning ticket, you would win €4,000,000.

12. Billete de lotería Los niños de San Ildefonso

13. LAS 12 UVAS • The twelve grapes is a Spanish tradition that dates back from at least 1895 but became consolidated in 1909. In December of that year, some vine growers popularized this custom to better sell huge amounts of grapes from an excellent harvest. • The tradition consists in eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31. According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity. • The twelve grapes are linked to the Puerta del Sol tower clock, where this tradition started and from where the change of year is always broadcast. • This tradition was adopted also by places with a broad cultural relation with Spain such as Mexico and other Latin American countries, as well as Hispanic communities in the United States. Countries as far as the Philippines have adopted the tradition.

14. La Puerta del Sol, Madrid, España

15. LA CABALGATA DE LOS REYES MAGOS • The Parade of Magi is a traditional parade of kings coaches, practically in all Spanish cities and also in some cities and towns in Mexico. The Magi ride through the streets, as their page boys throw candies to children. • It is celebrated every January 5 (the day preceding the feast of Epiphany) in the evening. When the night comes the children must go to bed early after cleaning their shoes and the following morning they have the gifts of the Magi that they have requested before in a letter. According to this tradition, the children who have behaved badly during the last year receive coal rather than candy. They might get coal candy…

16. Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos

17. Carbón dulce