Posada
‘Posada is a Spanish word. It means ‘inn’.
Celebrations for Posada began in Mexico. Two young people used to dress up as Mary and Joseph and travel among the houses in their village telling people about how Jesus would soon arrive and would they give Him a room? On Christmas Eve they would re-enact a nativity story and bring figures of Mary and Joseph to be placed in a crib.
Nowadays we do something similar but we also encourage people of the parish to give a home to the nativity figures of Mary and Joseph for a night. It symbolises making room for Jesus in our lives and our homes.
Each night from the fourth Sunday before Christmas figures travel around Canterbury among the homes of our congregations arriving in Church on Christmas Eve in time to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
The idea of a journey encourages people to think about the meaning of Christmas and to share the message with others.
Parishioners sign up to say they're willing to accept the figures of Mary and Joseph at home for a night. They must be available at home to accept the figures and agree to take them on to their new host on the next stage of their journey.
There are some suggested prayers to say at the transfer.
That’s the basic idea. Hosts can go further and elaborate on this by planning a little celebration, a coffee morning, a bit of prayer time, a short service or a full blown party to honour the arrival of Mary and Joseph. It's good to invite non-church people and use it as a way to evangelise! Whatever. Posada is an expression of hospitality and love. How we honour Christ’s earthly parents is up to us.
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