One of the main traditional events that occur in december here in Mexico is the Posadas. This is something similar to what we do in Colombia (the novenas), as it is an event that takes place everyday since the 16th of december (exactly 9 days before xmas).
Posadas, recall the journey that Jose and Maria did in order to find a place to give birth to Jesus, knocking every possible door to spend the night, they couldn't find any place until some sheepers gave them refuge.
And as religious as it can be, Posadas are actually very fun; basically families, friends and neighbors get together in a house, and traditional food are served ( mexican tamales), and when everybody has arrived they divide in two groups to start the act, one group stays inside the house representing the owners of the house and the other group goes outside to represent jose and maria, they sing some songs (canticos) which main versus says:
"En nombre del cielo os pido posada, pues no puede andar mi esposa amada". In the name of Heaven, I ask thou shelter, since my lovely wife can not walk anymore"
the owners of the house deny shelter for a while (singing other versus) until they finally realize who they are and open the door singing:
"Entren santos peregrinos, peregrinos,reciban este rincón no de esta pobre morada sino de mi corazón". Come in saint peregrines, and accept this corner, not of this poor house, but from my heart.
After this ritual, the piñata game starts, it consists of a shaped balloon filled with candies or fruits. In order to open it someone has to blind his/her eyes and try to break the balloon, it usually takes several trials before someone can actually break it and then the party starts (yes alcohol is part of the party!!)
My second posada in Mexico was organized by the bank I work for, as part of their CSR activities, they did an alliance with a foundation and sponsor a posada in a foundation for children in risk (abandonned, living with poor families, etc), it is basically a school run by nuns where children live during the week where they recieve education based in moral/religious principles.
So as one of the volunteers from the bank I went there to share some love with these georgeus kids, playing and teaching them a bit about Colombia. Besides playing with piñatas, they recieved some gifts from the bank and were offer a nice lunch!
Although I enjoyed a lot the day, I still think that this kind of activities don't offer a sustainable solution to the issue, as after this day the lives of these children will go back to the "normal" state, I strongly believe that more engagement is needed to actually improve these kids life, and I definetely hope that the bank assumes education (or any relevant topic) as an issue to be tackled and implements a planed and structured way to be a corporate citizen.
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