Christmas Eve feast

Christmas Eve night is one of my favorite times in Oaxaca. Many churches put together calendulas, or parades. Each church shows up at the zocalo around 8, sometimes later, and they parade around the zocalo until they are ready to return to their home church, usually before midnight. There is a mass at midnight, followed by huge feasts at home.

The parade units usually have dancers, like the ones at left. Traditional dancers, dressed in one of the most colorful Oaxacan styles. They carry baskets on their heads, with traditional floral arrangements. I caught this group on the street beside our apartment, returning to their church late in the evening.  Who knows how many miles they walk this evening?






The dancers are preceded by a young man with a bamboo tripod to set off rockets, and followed by the marvelous gigantes. Dancing puppets. The puppets are my favorite! They are usually manned (as opposed to womaned), the dancer looks through an opening in the belly of the costume. The entire rig is made of bamboo, and sits on the shoulders of the dancer. The gigante's arms are cloth, and as the dancer twirls, the arms swing wide. The gigantes are followed by an energetic marching band, with drums and horns of all kinds. The music is frenetic, and happy. Often, the band is followed by a group of walkers, all holding candles. They are followed by a big truck, decorated with lights and a stage platform on the back for the Virgin Mary, the baby, and lots of small kids and sometimes animals. The young children on the back of the truck throw candy at the crowds, and are rewarded with cheers and applauding.

This was not a good night to leave my camera at home, but I did. We walked to the zocalo about 9pm, just for a quick look. Tere and Dan are picking us up at 10pm to drive across the river to her daughter/SIL house, for their Christmas Eve party.  As we walked home from the zocalo, yet another church was heading towards the center, and several women grabbed me by the and and invited me to join them.  What fun that would have been!  But, more fun awaited us at the midnight feast....

An out of focus image of our hosts for the party...including their son, who is 10 years old. He's studying english, and is speaking much better english than I speak spanish!

Tere has cooked salt cod, and a pork dish, both very delicious! Chayo, her daughter, baked a nut cake to die for. Tere has promised to share the recipes for all. What I've learned so far: it's dried cod.   I've seen the dried fish hundreds of times in the market, but didn't know how to prepare them.  You soak the fish  clean water for at least two days, changing the water often. Then, saute onions and tomatoes (I'd roast the tomatoes and onions first, in the typical Oaxacan cooking method).  Add the shredded fish to the mixture, and add green olives (a now-typical Spanish food introduction), and finish it with a splash of vinegar. Oh, and small  potatoes are cooked in it, too. The cod is served with pickled chiles. ohmyohmy! The pork was pounded flat, and a mixture of almonds and raisins was spread on it. The pork was then rolled, and marinated in red wine, cloves and pepper corns for at least 12 hours. Then baked. Served sliced. Yet another ohmyohmyohmy! Tere has promised to share all the recipes with me, which I'll post here.  Evenutally.

We completed the Christmas Eve festivities with the breaking of not one, but TWO pinatas that Tere filled with roasted peanuts.  We had great fun breaking them open, sin blindfold.  Tere's grown son, who is finishing med school right now, loves pinatas, so she had one just for him.  Gifts were exchanged, with lots of hugs, all around the small fire the men built right on the grass in the yard.  Tere had even rented a tent, which was contructed right by the house!  At mightnight, just as we sat down to the feast, fireworks were going off everywhere, and we enjoyed the show from across the river, fire at our feet, delicious food on the table, and laughter all around.  We are honored to be invited to Tere's family celebration.