Students re-live Holy Family’s journey

By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
December 21, 2006

GLENDALE — Five young travelers braved 47-degree temperatures one desert morning to continue their journey.

It was their second day of nine. The seventh-graders trudged over cold concrete under the protection of a costumed guardian angel.

They remained hopeful of finding find warm lodging amidst their Catholic campus.

This is how each school-day began at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School starting Dec. 6 when the students experienced las posadas.

The nine-day religious and social celebration — honored largely by Hispanics — pays homage to the Holy Family’s journey in the days before Christmas. Las posadas, a term for shelter or lodging, involves a live re-enactment that puts Catholics into the traditional story.

Twice the young travelers briefly found shelter when they knocked on the door of two classrooms that functioned as inns. Gusts of warm air, as if from an oven, engulfed them while they spoke to each “innkeeper.”

Twice the owners pushed them back outside within moments.

“They felt sad that we had to say no to them, but they understood why,” kindergarten teacher Cheryl Myers said about her student innkeepers who had to remain true to the story line.

The students’ reactions are common. Even though las posadas is about Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, it often forces an internal look as well. Students asked themselves how much room they leave in their own heart for God and His vast family.

This marked the third year of the school’s posada, but the first time reenacting the denial, a scene Brandon Tanner looked forward to watching unfold Dec. 7 while dressed as a shepherd.

“I wanted to feel what it would have been like to be denied,” he said, noting that it wasn’t pleasant. “I never want to have that feeling again.”

Annette McConnell’s fourth-graders also said no to the Holy Family that day. She said the experience has a lot of symbolism.

“It can be related to our own lives. We can be rejected like Mary and Joseph were,” McConnell said. “We’ve knocked on doors.”

There can be a lot of rejection, but “at some point, we will be welcomed into friendships or community,” she explained.

That point for the young travelers came at their third stop. The welcoming innkeepers presented them with a gift such as a song, writing or drawing.

A lesson through acting

Nearly half of Our Lady of Perpetual Help students are Hispanic. Spanish teacher Bridget Chavez coordinates las posadas because it lets them learn about and experience their culture.

The school also does it for another reason.

“For children to re-create something, to actually be a part of it, they’ll remember it more,” Chavez explained, especially “the feeling that they’ll have while doing it.”

Alberto Lopez Pulido, director of ethnic studies at the University of San Diego, agreed. He said las posadas makes the story of Christmas real and personal. It serves as a reminder of human dependency on others for survival.

“It’s a beautiful message for our contemporary communities to open our arms and welcome the stranger into our communities regardless of where they are from,” he said.

That’s what happened with the original posadas.

Spanish missionaries likely performed one of the first posadas to catechize Indians in Mexico in the 16th century. They substituted a nine-day celebration honoring one of the many Aztec gods with a novena and pageant honoring the Christian God of love.

The festivities traditionally begin Dec. 16 with nine days of candlelit processions throughout the community. Teens typically lead it carrying tiny figurines of Joseph with Mary riding a donkey sidesaddle.

Costumed children portray the shepherds, three kings and angels. The travelers recite one decade of the rosary and a litany between each house stop. They request lodging through song and the “innkeeper” sings back a negative reply.

Finally, at the last stop each night, the owner lets them take refuge in a stable and welcomes the travelers to a party. The celebration includes food and a piñata.

Leticia Meraz, a St. Catherine of Siena parishioner, said the piñata — usually a seven-point star — is symbolic.

The points “represent the seven capital sins. The blindfold is the faith. The stick represents the Gospel,” Meraz said.

Las posadas concludes with midnight Mass together on the ninth day, Christmas Eve.

“It truly helps them to understand why we celebrate the season of Advent from now until Christmas,” kindergarten teacher Myers said. “It was a long journey and it wasn’t always nice.”