Nine nights before Christmas, Mexican households and communities reenact the same journey that Mary and Joseph made looking for shelter in Bethlehem. They carry candles. They sing the same call-and-response song. They knock on doors and get turned away, and then they knock again, and finally someone opens. The posada has arrived. The celebration begins. This is not a children's pageant. This is one of the most alive traditions in Mexican culture — and it has been running, night after night, for over four hundred years.
What Are Las Posadas?
Las Posadas (literally "the inns" or "the lodgings") is a nine-night religious and community celebration observed from December 16th through December 24th, commemorating Mary and Joseph's search for shelter in Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. Each night features a candlelit procession, a traditional call-and-response song (La Canción de las Posadas), a ritual requesting and granting shelter, communal prayer, and then celebration — food, music, a piñata, and the particular joy of a community gathered in the cold night to do something they have always done.
The History of Las Posadas
Las Posadas in their current form were established by Spanish Augustinian friars in colonial Mexico in the late 16th century, specifically at the Acolman monastery in present-day México State in 1586. The friars recognized that the indigenous populations of central Mexico already held winter festivals in mid-December — celebrations tied to the birth of the sun god Huitzilopochtli. By establishing Las Posadas as a Christian observance during the same period, they created a tradition that absorbed and transformed indigenous winter festival energy into Catholic practice.
According to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Las Posadas represent one of the most successful examples of syncretic religious practice in the Americas — a tradition born from collision and negotiation between Spanish Catholicism and Mesoamerican ritual that has survived intact for over four centuries because it serves deep communal needs that neither tradition alone could have created.
The Piñata and the Party
The piñata — a clay pot or papier-mâché shape covered in colored paper and filled with candy, fruit, and coins — is the climax of each posada night. Traditional posada piñatas have seven points representing the seven deadly sins; breaking the piñata symbolizes the destruction of evil. The actual candy situation is chaotic and glorious. Children swing blindfolded at a spinning star while the crowd sings "Dale, dale, dale" and the adults take bets on which swing connects. No matter where the posada is held — a church courtyard in Oaxaca, a apartment complex in Chicago, a rented hall in Los Angeles — the piñata works the same way.
Las Posadas in the Mexican Diaspora
For Mexican and Mexican-American families, Las Posadas is one of the traditions that travel best. The song can be sung anywhere. The candles can be found anywhere. The piñata can be made anywhere. What requires no travel at all is the feeling — the combination of cold air, warm light, familiar voices singing something everyone knows, and the particular anticipation of being welcomed in after having been kept outside. For diaspora families far from Mexico, that feeling is December itself.
Keep reading:
Tamales at Christmas: The Tradition That Runs Deep
Champurrado: The Warm Mexican Drink You Need to Know
Nochebuena: The Christmas Eve Celebration at the Heart of Latin Culture