Rebeca Ramos Milosevic will never forget the Christmases of her childhood.

There were chilly December nights when her family and best friends walked the neighborhood together, holding candles that lit up the night.

They went from house to house knocking on doors, asking in song for a place for Jesus to be born, and were turned away.

Most of all, Milosevic remembers waiting for that one door to open—as it always did—as a signal to everyone that the Holy Family had found a home and celebrations could begin.

She was participating in a religious tradition from Mexico—the celebration of Las Posadas Navideñas (“the Christmas rests”) re-enacting Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay in Bethlehem, a place to give birth to the Christ child.

From left, Jonathan and Melody Alarcon and Abby Nuño prepare to lead a Posadas procession in their Elk Grove neighborhood in 1999 while Leticia Briones (back, left) rehearses the lyrics of a traditional song.

While Las Posadas celebrations vary somewhat from region to region and family to family, typically they involve friends and neighbors joining together going door to door in a quest that inevitably ends with an invitation inside for prayer, feasting and breaking piñatas. Traditionally Las Posadas celebrations last for nine days beginning Dec. 16 and culminating on Dec. 24.

Milosevic, a member of St. John the Baptist Parish in Chico, grew up in the Mexican city of Aguas Calentes. She says Posadas is a tradition that makes Christ’s birth come alive for families.

“It’s a happening—a huge thing,” she said. Milosevic remembers her mother preparing for Posadas by sewing clothing for the infant Jesus and creating the town of Bethlehem in miniature for display on a family altar in the living room.

“We would pray the rosary and be extra nice to one another because everything had to be perfect for Christ’s birth,” she said.

After leaving Mexico to live in the United States, there was a time when Las Posadas was just a memory for Milosevic. But three years ago, she began participating in an annual Posadas celebration for Hispanic religious education classes at St. John the Baptist.

The celebration, which draws about 200 Hispanic religious education students, features families processing to five church doors. At the last door all are invited inside the church for prayers, feasting and the breaking of a piñata.

“We want our children to know the way it was in Mexico,” Milosevic said. “Our people are thirsty for our roots.”

Rosalinda and Oscar Alarcón share a love for the Posadas celebration discovered in their respective homelands, Mexico and Guatemala. The Alarcóns, who are members of Good Shepherd Parish in Elk Grove, felt they wanted to continue that tradition with their Latino friends and children, Jonathan, 6, and Melody, 4. The richness of the Posadas, explained Rosalinda, is that it focuses on Mary and Joseph looking for an inn, on the birth of Christ, and the understanding that “Jesus is our gift.”

“What I wanted our children to learn is that Christmas is not just about the tree and presents, but about the giving,” she said. “It’s also one way of connecting our children to who we are.”

A few years ago the Alarcóns began inviting a few families to carry on the Posadas tradition in their Laguna neighborhood during the holidays. Their celebration begins with Rosalinda telling the children the story of Christ’s birth followed by a candlelight procession to designated neighborhood homes.

Led by the children, dressed as Mary, Joseph, angels and shepherds, the group sings the Posadas song asking for a place for Mary to give birth, a request which is answered in song by people inside.

An added benefit of the celebration for the Alarcóns is that their children learn about the special gift of “being blessed with friends,” Rosalinda said.

For Yolanda Colosio, who coordinates Posada Navidena, an annual Mexican Christmas program at California State University, Sacramento, Posadas is a joyful way for parents to pass on to their children something of tremendous value about their culture.

Into her own childhood Christmas experience of growing up in Mexicali, Mexico, is woven memories of getting together with over 50 relatives, going from house to house for nine days.

“It’s an exciting time. Everyone knows Jesus is coming,” she said.

Sponsored by the Instituto Mazatlan Bellas Artes, a folk arts school established by Colosio in 1994, the Posadas festival includes traditional Mexican music and dance but its centerpiece is a pastorela, a theatrical presentation of Joseph and Mary’s pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Colosio says the Posadas celebration reflects the spirit of the liturgical observance of the Advent season, symbolized in lighting four candles.

“By teaching about the Posadas, our children will have a better idea of what happened in our past and will remember more things about Jesus,” she said.

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