Feliz Navidad and La Ultima Posada
Happiest holidays to you and yours! I hope you celebrate the beauty of life with family and friends — ’tis the season for peace, thanksgiving, and recommitment to relationships. Out here on the Rio Grande Gorge Mesa, the sun is bright, the air is chilly, and the skies are clear and clean. All promising a […]
Feliz Navidad From Oaxaca, Mexico
‘Tis the season to celebrate, reflect and, of course, eat, drink and be merry. There is much to be thankful for as 2021 comes to and end, and the days lengthen. If we are fully vaccinated (meaning two jabs and the booster), we are told we can safely congregate with family and friends who are […]
Holiday Letter, Season’s Greetings, Year-in-Review, Looking Ahead
Happy, Merry Holidays to all friends and acquaintances, virtual and concrete. I’m winding down my short North Carolina visit and return to Oaxaca on December 24 in time for Christmas Eve village festivities — a midnight supper with extended family. This year (2018) I received Season’s Greetings letters from long-time friends, written, duplicated, personally signed […]
Rosca de Reyes and Three Kings Day in Oaxaca
Here in Oaxaca the tradition is to celebrate Three Kings Day, Dia de los Reyes, January 6, with gift-giving to the children. Godparents visit the homes of godchildren, godchildren come to the homes of godparents. They will present a Rosca de Reyes, that translates to wreath of the kings. They sit down to a cup of […]
Christmas Posadas in Teotitlan del Valle, Nine Days of Awe
Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico celebrates the winter holiday with a posada on nine nights before Christmas Day, starting on December 15. Starting yesterday afternoon and going into the night, I participated with a small group of visitors from the USA, Canada and Ireland interested in joining me to explore the history, culture and traditions […]
Follow Me Cultural + Photo Walking Tour, Christmas Posadas: One Day in Teotitlan del Valle
Christmas in Oaxaca is magical. In ancient villages throughout the central valleys, indigenous Zapotec people celebrate with a mix of pre-Hispanic mystical ritual blended with Spanish-European Catholic practice. They retrace the Census pilgrimage (Roman command to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem for Cesar’s census) of Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem. The posadas in […]
From Oaxaca, Mexico: Feliz Fiestas y Navidad, Merry Holidays, Chag Sameach
Wishing you all the blessings of peace, contentment, safety and good health at this joyous time of year when we think of renewal, looking beyond the Winter Solstice as the earth turns, the days grow longer and all is well in the land. We are dormant now. Slower. More thoughtful, perhaps. In ancient cultures our […]
Three More Posada Days in Teotitlan del Valle: Magical Moments
Counting tonight, there will be three more posadas in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, this year, December 22, 23 and 24. Christmas Eve is La Ultima Posada, the last posada, when Mary and Joseph settle into the Bethlehem manger and give birth to baby Jesus. The posadas leading up to this event each year recreate this […]
Tlacolula Market Christmas Preview: Oaxaca Glitters
I grew up in Tinseltown. My memory is imprinted with pink, blue and white flocked Christmas trees for sale on pop-up corner lots along Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Glitter was not only reserved for Hollywood. Garlands of sparkling silver ropes and plastic poinsettias could make any California dream of snowmen […]
Let the Posadas Begin: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
The Christmas season is upon us in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. Each morning I wake to the sound of the cojetes — the firecrackers — going off at six o’clock. They continue through the day and well into the evening. This is a signal that Mary, Joseph and Jesus are traveling to Bethlehem […]
Three Kings Day and Rosca de Reyes, Oaxaca, Mexico
It’s January 6, Three Kings Day in Mexico, that marks Christmas celebrations in Latin America and Spain, culminating in the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. The children especially gather around to open gifts, sip hot chocolate made with water, no milk, and dig into tamales and Rosca de Reyes. Everyone loves Rosca de […]
Christmas in Oaxaca: Three Wise Men and Rosca de Reyes
It feels like springtime here in Oaxaca, although we are still celebrating Christmas. Yesterday was downright warm, with temperatures rising to the low 80’s, though nights can be a chilly 45 or 50 degrees. Christmas here is an elaborate and lengthy celebration, starting on December 12 to celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe and officially ending […]
Christmas Collage: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
Martha, Marianne, and Judy arrive from the city for dinner on December 23 and then we gather at the house of the eighth posada. Earlier, I go to the local morning market and find a fish vendor from the coast. We eat organic and fresh talapia, squash, potatoes, carrots, onions seasoned with kumquats, candied ginger, […]
Merry Christmas Oaxaca, Mexico Fruit Salad Recipe
Merry Christmas and happiest holidays to you and your family! My gift to you is this delicious recipe for easy fruit salad Mexican style, using red and green skin apples and pears for festive color of Mexico to decorate your table. Seasoned with lime juice, organic honey, and mixed with yogurt, it is a healthy […]
Christmas in Oaxaca: Teotitlan del Valle Posadas
For nine days and nights leading up to Christmas eve, the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico recreates the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. Each night they sleep on the road, which means they arrive at the home of a host family who welcomes them to their courtyard, then altar […]
Travel Photography Workshop: Christmas in Oaxaca
Oaxaca, Mexico, is a photographer’s dream-come-true, a visual explosion of color, colonial architecture, indigenous cultural icons, hand-woven intricately designed clothing, and food so delicious and artfully presented that you might imagine you are close to culinary heaven. Christmas in Oaxaca is all this and more. It is merrymaking and solemnity. It is the sweet […]
Radishes are not just for eating: Oaxaca Radish Festival
With tongue-in-cheek, National Public Radio retorts, Survived The Mayan Apocalypse? Here Come the Radish People. In three days on December 23 and just in time for Christmas, Oaxaqueños and visitors from throughout Mexico and the world will queue up around Oaxaca’s Zocalo for the annual ritual of the Radish Festival. If you are in […]
Feliz Navidad: Christmas in Oaxaca
The winter solstice is upon us and there is a sliver of moon hanging in the sky like an oyster shell, illuminated and alluring. In the southern part of the northern hemisphere Oaxaca is celebrating Christmas with her traditional pomp, ceremony, somber ritual and ubiquitous brass band. From the city to the villages, women are […]
Interlude: Santa Cruz, California
Work as I have known it, with routine and some semblance of structure and predictability, has ended. My office is cleaned out of all the essentials and my personal memorabilia, ready for the next person to inherit and create as their own. I will return on December 27 for my exit interview and give up […]
Photojournalism Workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico–Las Cuevitas and Day of the Three Kings
Like a writer, a photojournalist captures and tells a story through the still photographs s/he takes that is accompanied by a short written narrative. Oaxaca, Mexico, during the extraordinary and magical Christmas season will be our workshop laboratory to discover and record the scenes of the season– Las Cuevitas and Day of the Three Kings […]
Christmas In Oaxaca, Mexico: Feliz Navidad
At this moment, it is snowing in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and it is cold outside. Tonight it will be 27 degrees. Brrrr. On the other hand, in Oaxaca de Juarez today it will reach a balmy 82 degrees Fahrenheit and drop to 47 degrees Fahrenheit — great sleeping weather. It should be a beautiful Christmas […]