The Joy of Posada

Our church runs a scheme during Advent called the Posada, which is a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph looking for lodgings on Christmas Eve.  The festival originated in Latin American countries and traditionally starts on the 16th of December, but we start ours on Advent Sunday.

Essentially, it's a rota of people who agree to keep the Mary, Joseph, and donkey figures from our church's nativity set. Each evening, the people with the holy family meet with the next people on the rota, and effect a changeover. This goes on until Christmas Eve, when the figures are processed to the front of the church and placed in the nativity scene.

The changeover is supposed to be a time of prayer and celebration together, though these may sometimes have to happen on the fly with a quick "God bless"; other times, there's a whole afternoon of tea and mince pies, or a meal, or a few minutes of quiet together.  It just depends on what people want to do, and what they have time for.

"Busy Timmy" unveils the scroll;
Phoenix in the conservatory (background) lights the Advent candle

The best thing about Posada is meeting up with people that you rarely have a chance to spend time with.  For example, we received the holy family from a friend of mine who's a single mum and whose schedule is so opposite to mine that we've never managed to share that glass of wine we always talk about.

Last night, we had her and her daughters over for the Posada hand-over, and they stayed for dinner.  It was fantastic!

Then this afternoon, we took the Posada figures to the home of a retired Vicar and his wife.  They had the children light their Advent candle, and then played "Mary's Boy Child" while unrolling a huge scroll that someone had made on wallpaper that depicted the song in cartoon characters.

"Man will live forever more because of Christmas Day"

Busy Timmy was absolutely fascinated, and though my children are pretty well-versed in their Bible stories, he has come away with that scroll burned into his memory.

So thanks to our new friends and our old friends, and thanks to the whole idea of the Posada.