Throughout Mexico and many other countries of the Spanish-speaking world Las Posadas are an annual custom for the nine nights preceding Christmas. This year posadas are planned at several historic adobes in the Southland.
It will be acted out utilizing movie sets from MGM that have set up behind the center. Many churches in Latino neighborhoods welcome visitors at their posadas, which help parishioners recall their ethnic heritage. These will take place in the early evening from Tuesday through Dec. Cathy Bryant, site manager of the Olivas Adobe in Ventura, where posadas are planned next Saturday, says the processions probably originated in Spain some time around the 16th Century.
Catholic missionaries brought the custom to the New World. In Spanish the word posada means inn. A boy and a girl dressed as Mary and Joseph lead the procession followed by musicians and possibly other children dressed as angels, shepherds and wise men.
The Christ child represented by a statue or sometimes a live infant is carried in the procession. Followed by candle-bearing pilgrims, the group stops from time to time, knocking on different doors of the adobe asking for lodging. Again and again they are refused entry, but at the final stop they are permitted to enter. The statue of Jesus is laid to rest in a manger as part of a Nativity scene.
Each night a party with traditional refreshments and a pinata for the children follows the posada. At Olivas Adobe the expected to guests will enjoy pan dulce or sweet rolls, chocolate flavored with cinnamon and sweet tamales prepared by the Guadalupana society at Mission San Buenaventura.
