In 1994 during our first year in Oaxaca, we learned that Las Posadas is a nine-day celebration that people in Mexico celebrate annually beginning December 16 and ending December 24. The nine-day event represents the nine months of pregnancy of Mary carrying Jesus. The procedure has been a tradition in Mexico for 400 years. Although Catholics predominately celebrate this now even Protestant Latinos celebrate this tradition.

Village people move in line from one home to the next each evening with the owner responding by singing a song and welcoming a ceramic Mary and Joseph into the home. At the end of each night's journey, the people sing Christmas carols, children break open star-shaped piñatas to obtain candy and fruit hidden inside, and tamales and atole are distributed to all.

In 1994 the festivities were much simpler than they have now become and reflected the poverty of the people. About forty people arrived at the home we attended. The welcoming residents gave two sweet tamales, café, or cocoa to each attendee. Men and women were offered cups of mezcal. There were no piñatas. This year’s Las Posadas was much more extravagant and reflected the increasing income of the people. In contrast, in this year’s celebration over 200 people arrived at the home of Felipe. Everyone received both meat-filled and bean-filled tamales, three to each attendee. Bags of candy and fruit were also given to all, and the children enjoyed breaking six candy filled piñatas. 

Preparations began early in the day.

Beth and Amparo taking a break!!!!

Caldo (soup) was served early in the day.

Beth with the grandson of a friend.

Had to photograph this little guy. He's pretty scruffy but has a wonderful personality. 

The arrival of everyone. Yea the guy in front was pretty wasted! For us the mixing of a religious celebration with alcohol was at first a little strange. It certainly adds to the festive spirit!!!

For those residents from Union Zapata that have been in the states for years I imagine there are a lot of faces you don't recognize especially the young adults and children. For that reason I tried to include as many faces as possible in my photos.

I couldn't believe the young lady in the middle was Pofirio's daughter!

Felipe serving mezcal.

You don't want to get in the way when the kids dive for the fallen candy. 

Last week we were invited for dinner to Juan's in Matatlan. He owns a little cabin on the side of a mountain that overlooks the valley where Matatlan is located. The view is spectacular. I'm sorry I didn't photograph it! Anyway we all met at Juan's before driving up to the cabin. Mickey, Yadi, Beth, and I were the first to arrive so we walked over to the palenque where mezcal is made. I love the building. It's made mostly out of adobe and wood. I always feel like i'm walking into the past inside. Everything shows signs of wear and hard use. The boards that make up the walls do not fit tightly together so light filters in and makes beautiful patterns inside. The brutish work it takes to make mezcal is staggering when one sees the process. 

Making mezcal is a long process. Casto and Juan often spend the night waking up to stir the fermenting mezcal or add firewood below the copper hojas that cook the maguey.

Luis is explaining the process to Beto's son Armando.

In the background you can see the stone circle where cooked maguey is placed and broken into pieces. A horse pulls the heavy stone around to smash the maguey into a stringy fibres matter. At this point the maguey is very sweet with a maple flavor leaning towards molasses. When the maguey is thoroughly smashed it's put into the wooden tubs. Hot water is added to expedite the fermenting process. You can actually see the bubbles coming up to the surface. After fermentation the maguey is pitchforked into copper pots where it is cooked. Through condensation the mezcal travels through copper tubes and into a waiting container. The first mezcal out of the hoja is deadly often reaching ninety nine percent. It's usually recycled to drop the percentage but there are men who drink it. I put some in a spoon once and lit it. I got tired of waiting for it to burn out and dumped it. 

Juan's cabin. 

Beth with Juan's grandson.

Yadi learning how to make molotes.

Beto's kids. They are fun to be around.

Poor Mickey had a tooth ace.  But he more than paid for his trip by visiting the dentist several days. Some vacation!!!

The meal consisted of tesajo, rabbit, Beth's chile, a salad with nopales, large hand made tortillas, and molotes. That's Yadi's hand reaching for hot sauce. It ended up being quite a feast.