Christmas tradition: God, Myths and Resemblances at Lake Chapala.

Text by Maria Di Paola Blum

Christmas here, is different from anywhere else. The main reason is because different cultures live together. Of course the main tradition is catholic. This means that most people attend the "Posadas" during the previous 14 days, and midnight Mass on December 24, and thus celebrate the birth of Jesus. On the 24th. If they live in town, they gather together, usually outside their homes, lighting bonfires, and while they wait for the bells to announce midnight Mass, they drink ponche and atole. The first drink is a sort of cinnamon tea wich includes jamaica petals, piloncillo and chopped sugar cane, it also has a lot of little pieces of fruits like tejocote, guayaba and apple, sometimes they add a bit of clove and slices of orange.
The atole is made with the "masa" that it is possible to buy at any tortilleria, it's normally used to prepare corn tortillas. Once the masa is melted with hot water or milk at medium flame on the stove, stirring until it is cooked, they add guayaba, cinnamon or vanilla in order to enhance the flavor, and let it cook for another 5 minutes, it's delicious while it's hot. As time goes by, Christmas dinner takes place: tamales, lamb, pozole, turkey, bu¤uelos, and many other delicious plates. At about ten O'clock midnight Mass is on. Firecrackers are heard, Jesus is born. Christmas carols. A sense of sharing a new life, of entering a new horizon...

There are other people that really don't give much importance to this festivity, like Isabelle Jolly for example, a canadian lady who is one of the owners of the Gathering Place, a new concept of gallery in the village (promoting women's arts and crafts). She doesn't celebrate Christmas but she celebrates the 21st of december that is the longest night of the year: "the solstice". "It's a very ancient ceremony, she said, and it's to invite the sun back to rise again. "I light a candle and I let it burn all night long, but in Canada , she continues, we lit bonfires on the beach all night long".

Anselmo Avalos Rochin, cultural promoter, of the Centro Cultural de Ajijic, just organized a special course for those who wish to learn how to make pi¤atas, a very important mexican tradition. For Christmas night, Anselmo kills a pig and cooks the greatest parrillada of the year for all his relatives some of whom come back for this purpose from California, where they are already established.

James Tipton, an American writer and a poet who lives in Ajijic, used to spend this festivity as guest of Isabelle Allende in San Rafael, California, she paid for his round trip ticket a couple of years, and he enjoyed Isabel's family company from Chile, her stepfather Ramon and her beautiful mother Panchita. "More recently, he declares, I have been spending Christmas in Mexico with my little family which includes Marta, my Mexican wife, and our daughter Gabriela. We go to a lots of parties and we attend Christmas events in Ajijic such as concerts organized by the Music Appreciation Society at the Auditorio de la Ribera, school activities, the Live Nativity in the plaza Kiosk. Sometimes we go to Bucerias or Puerto Vallarta for the festivities. Marta's family, he continues, is from Guadalajara so there are about fifteen of us for Christmas dinner. We cook traditional mexican food and above all we bake hundreds of cookies. Marta's brother Ilario, and myself prepare various kinds of meats "a la parrilla", and at night we enjoy watching the kids break several pi¤atas.

Rosario Marquez, "Chayo" for everybody, the owner of the groceries store in front of Bancomer works hard that night selling fruits and vegetables almost until midnight with the help of her two daughters Lupita and Blanca, while the "ponche and atole" are boiling at the back of their "tiendita de abarrotes". But this year it's a special one because her son Felipe, named after his father, came back home from the States after twelve years of absence. So a special Christmas dinner is on the way.

Rosalinda Chenery, English and Buddhist, had lived in Europe and the States, but she moved to Ajijic. She is pleased to avoid the commercialism of Christmas. "In the States, she declares, they start to sell Christmas decorations and cards in September! Since then they start advertising all you can buy, on TV, so you really forget the main purpose of Christmas, which I personally think is to celebrate the love, harmony and peace. That's why I love Ajijic because it isn't too commercialized, not yet! Anyway I will escape to the mountain, this Christmas".

Alberto Ortiz, a local artist, used to spend the holydays with friends at home by the fireplace, smoking a cigar and drinking a "copita of tequila" making a balance of his life, of the last years, reviewing his projects, helping each other for spiritual growth. "Due to the fact that the rest of the year, he declares, practical problems don't give me the chance to be profoundly spiritual, I take advantage to do it when all my friends are around me and everybody is relaxed, so we start our spiritual journey. Really Christmas doesn't mean very much to me. I'm not Christian. I live with no god, without devil and with no guilt. I live finally totally free".

Juan Navarro another local artist from Ajijic, on the contrary, likes to spend Christmas night walking on the streets and stopping here and there talking with the people while they are out of their houses by the bonfires, staying up until he hears the pealing of bells at midnight announcing Jesus is born! Some barrios close the street to avoid traffic and they transform it into a big dinning table full of tamales and other delicious foods. "So when I finally arrive home, I have already eaten and I have a lot of fun telling others about all the persons I saw again after a long time and the stories I heard from one table to the other".

Lina Polonsky, an American teacher, bought a little house by the six corners in Ajijic a couple years ago, so when the holidays start, she comes back from Portland, Oregon, where she teaches now, to spend a more human and less commercial holiday. She visits dad and mom buried here, she enjoys friends, food and Corona beer, no credit cards in her pocket only a bit of cash in pesos. In the evening she takes a lot of photographs of the " Live-Nativity" to show to her students in the States. And she declares: "there is always a student who shouts: "Viva Mexico!"