Local Latinos bring Las Posadas to the cold Inland Northwest

click to enlarge Local Latinos bring Las Posadas to the cold Inland Northwest
Beating the cold with hot tamales and champurrado.

Bringing a 400-year-old Latin American holiday to Washington requires a few adaptations.

Las Posadas — or "the inns" in Spanish — is a multiday festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. In many Latin American countries, friends, families and neighbors reenact the journey that Mary and Joseph (or María and José) took through Bethlehem to find refuge for the birth of Jesus. A pair of teenagers is often chosen to dress up as Mary and Joseph, and the group of pilgrims visit selected neighbors and ask for lodging, sometimes singing carols and asking for food. The first two neighbors are supposed to refuse the request (just like the Biblical innkeepers). The third neighbor accepts the group, giving them food and drink and sometimes performing a religious reading or song.

Elida Fernandez, secretary at St. Vincent parish in rural Connell, Washington, recently took a trip to Mexico City and observed an extravagant Las Posadas celebration that involved an entire neighborhood closing off their streets to celebrate with piñatas, feasts and a child dressed as Mary riding a donkey.

In the Inland Northwest, Las Posadas celebrations are a bit more low-key. Not everyone here is Catholic, and it's hard to spend that much time outside in the winter, Fernandez explains. Still, St. Vincent parish has found ways to adapt the holiday to the harsh northern climate and bring the celebration to the community. Fernandez says about 60 percent of her church is of Latin American origin, but you don't need to be Hispanic to celebrate Las Posadas and have a good time.

Fernandez has been helping organize the festivities at St. Vincent for 15 to 20 years. She says they normally celebrate for three or four nights, with the final Posada ending in Mass at the church. When the weather cooperates, neighbors sign up to have children visit their houses to knock and ask for shelter. When things get cold, they move the whole celebration inside the church, and the group knocks on various doors inside the church.

The food is always a big highlight, Fernandez says. Children are often given hot chocolate or sweet bread, along with bags of oranges and candy they can take home. Other common foods include pozole, enchiladas and — of course — tamales, which are often paired with champurrado, a chocolate-based Mexican drink.

"That's a big thing for Christmas," Fernandez says. "The month of December, wherever you go, somebody's going to offer you tamales."

Everybody celebrates Las Posadas differently, she says. The festival is about bringing people together, and teaching children about the biblical story of Mary and Joseph. ♦

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Nate Sanford

Nate Sanford is a staff writer for the Inlander covering Spokane City Hall and a variety of other news. He joined the paper in 2022 after graduating from Western Washington University. You can reach him at nates@inlander.com