WAUKEGAN -- For the Hispanic community, Christmas celebrations come early. The holiday season is chockful of traditions, festivities and religious observations, starting in mid-December and running into February.
Ivan Lazcano is an ordained minister with the Catholic church, as well as a case manager with HACES, an immigrant-services nonprofit based in Waukegan. He said this season is rich with tradition for the Mexican community, drawing from centuries of culture and history.
As immigrant families face an uncertain future after January, he said the season also brings comfort to Lake County's Hispanic community.
Celebrations begin with the Feast of Our Lady Guadalupe on Dec. 12, followed by nine days of Las Posadas leading up to Christmas Eve. Posadas means inn or lodging, and the celebrations represent the journey of Joseph and Mary seeking refuge to welcome Baby Jesus, Lazcano said.
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In Mexico, there's a tradition every night of Las Posadas where people go to the streets, gather and sing, knocking on doors and asking for shelter for Baby Jesus. For the nine days, every person visited by the pilgrims denies them shelter, Lazcano explained.
"That's why the celebration ends on Christmas Eve, because it's the night Christians believe when Joseph and Mary found a place for Baby Jesus to be born," he said.
The traditions today are a creation of the unique history of Mexico, a mix of the Christian practices bought by the region's European colonizers and the existing religious traditions of the Aztecs, Lazcano said.
Before Christianity, Lazcano said some Aztecs worshipped a god called Huitzilopochtli, whose birth in December was celebrated with days of festivities. In the 16th century, Catholic priests merged the traditions native populations already had into Christian teachings.
"The way they did it is they have what's called a Catholic Mass every night of the nine days leading up to Christmas, and after the mass, they offer food for those who attended," he said. "And that's how Posadas were born."
Another classic aspect of Mexican celebrations, the piñata, also has a deeper history, Lazcano said. While popular with the American public today, traditional piñatas are a little different than what you'll find in stores today.
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A traditional piñata is shaped like a star, symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem that led the pilgrims to Jesus, and its seven cones symbolize the seven capital sins. The person hitting it is blindfolded, meant to symbolize believing in something you can't see, Lazcano said.
"By hitting the piñata, you're destroying sin," he said. "When you break the piñata, it exposes the gifts that people receive after destroying sin."
The heart of the piñata star is made of clay, so it can be broken with a stick and filled with candies and fruits.
In Hispanic culture, the big celebrations and festivities are on Christmas Eve, Lazcano said.
"If you have Hispanic friends or have been to any Mexican birthdays, quinceaneras or weddings, you know what I'm talking about," he said. "Take the best parties of the year, turn it into Christmas. That's what Christmas Eve is about."
Midnight marks the conclusion of nine days of celebrating, and on the last night of Posadas people raid their closets for their best clothes for Christmas Day itself, Lazcano said. The holiday celebrations continue into the new year, however, including the Epiphany on Jan. 6 and the Feast of All Candles in February.
"We're talking about a couple months of celebrations of the holiday season for the Mexican community," Lazcano said.
For families far away from home, the traditions are a way to remain connected even while thousands of miles away during the holiday season.
"For people who cannot travel back to their hometowns, the celebrations that they have brought with them to the United States is probably one of the ways they can come the closest to home again," Lazcano said.
As millions of migrants across the country find themselves uncertain of what the future holds, Las Posadas and the story of Mary and Joseph struggling to find shelter and refuge was also an apt analogy for the Hispanic community today, he said.
"We're talking about millions of people who are frightened, who go to bed every night wondering what's going to happen the next day," he said. "I think the celebrations that we're living now, of this holiday season bring not just a joy, but also a little bit of peace to those minds that are worried about the future."
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