Only in Mexico: Teacapan’s two- hour Christmas miracle Posada Paul St. Pierre PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES TEACAPAN, SINALOA, MEXICO — It was 5 p.m. last Christmas Eve when my wife kicked my behind through the hammock and said ‘‘Rosina and I have decided to have Posada after all.’” “You can’t possibly arrange a Posada this late. Nobody’s been told about it. There'll be no kids there.” ‘Want to ber?" “Be sensible,” [ said, an appeal { make from time to time. “You have no donkey. You have no Mary and no Joseph. You have no flowers, no candy for the pinata and have collected no money in the neighborhood to buy such items. It’s too tate. It’s im- possible.’’ “This is Mexico,’’ she said. “Just watch.” Rosina, who runs a tiny neigh- borhood grocery store across the Street from us, had first suggested a Posada for our corner of the village a couple of weeks before. Tragedy then changed everything, as it often does here. One of Rosina’s relatives was lost at sea. A man and two young boys had gone out on the ocean in an old . dugout canoe with an outboard motor, unreliable as all outboards are, for push. They had not come back. The Syndic of this pueblo in- duced the state government to send a helicopter to look for them, but the ocean had swallow- ed them up. For a full week, their families had been keeping vigil near the harbor mouth. They built a shrine and burned candles, night and day, before a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Under. the circumstances, our Posada had been cancelled. “Rosina says that Christmas should be for the living, not the dead,’’ said my wife. ‘Lots of luck,” I said. For the next two hours, this corner of the village was alive with shouts, laughter and the berating of any men who didn’t move fast enough. A girl of 12 was sclected to play the Virgin Mary and a long shawl found to cover her body and most of her face. In the absence of roses, hibiscus flowers were picked for her to carry. A handsome young man with beard was found to play Joseph. A donkey was shanghaied on the street. There are always a few around. Nobody seems to be quite sure who owns them. Somebody draped him in crepe paper and flowers, which he ac- cepted with the stoic calm com- mon to donkeys: A pinata was bought and candy stuffed in it. By 7 p.m., two hours after the neighborhood wives had mobiliz- ed, one hour after darkness fell upon the village, Posada began. Ht is a very old Christmas custom in Mexico and varies Slightly from region to region, but the essence of the ritual is always the same. , The girl playing the Virgin Mary sits on the donkey, trying to ignore the fleas. Joseph, with a staff, leads the animal. and they go from house to hou. trying to find shelter for the night. In this pueblo the custom is for each house to shut off its lights when the Holy Family ap- preaches. Sometimes the house occupants will do more than shut off the lights. They will come to the door and shout, ‘‘No room, no room here.”* Almost every household in this neighborhood had donated money to the event. In our Posada, one of the men folowed the parade with a bottle of brandy. He went to each docr after the procession passed and offered them a drink, so they could con- sole themselves for having forgot- ten the famous old Mexican say- ing, ‘‘The stranger at our door may be God.”" All this was accompanied by battalions of children who sang a monotonous but not unpleasant chant as the processicn moved down the darkened streets. ft all ended at the street corner where it began. The patient little donkey was stripped of its flowers and paper Streamers, patted on the rump and told to go, with God. Mary and Joseph shed their glories. Before the procession returned, ropes had been strung across the intersection and three or four teenagers, on house roofs, worked the cords to make the pinata dance while the blindfolded kids beat at it with sticks until it released its treasures to them. At that time the crowd numbered more than 60 children and more than 20 adults. The intersection was, of course, closed to traffic. To do this we did not ask the Syndic, or the police or anybody else. We closed ht for a party and that was that. When the pinata was broken and the candy eaten, all dispersed. By eight o'clock nothing re- mained of the great event except some paper flowers blowing about in the dust. That, and some memories. **You women accomplished a Christmas miracle arranging all that in two hours,”” | said. ‘*Mexico,’’ said my wife, **Mexico.’’ FREE Catalogue 1-800-387-0110 Lbs THE WORLD S BEST: TRAVEL LOTHING: 8 Sat, Jan. 2 Friday, December 25, 1992 - North Shore News - 9 HOLIDAY HOURS BOXING DAY Sat Dec. 26 9am-6pm Sun, Dec 27, 2am-5pm, Mon, Dec. 28 9am-46pm Tues, Dec. 29 = 9am-6pm Wed, Dec 30 9am-épm Thurs, Dec 31 =9am-5pm New Year's Day Fri Jan. 1 CLOSED 9am-4pm 1519 BELLEVUE AVE, W 925-2990 EST VAN.