The catrinas captivated all of us from the first moment we saw them. Made of paper machete and dressed to the hilt in a manner that depicted a theme, they were expertly crafted with paint, natural materials, cloth, beads, mirrors, and stones.  We paused and photographed them every which way, jockeying among the crowd to get good angles. We stood next to them and took our photos by their side as if with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland — as did many other people there. I think half of Cuernavaca was inspired to pose next to at least one catrina and smile into the photographic lens of a cell phone. I never saw a sign explaining exactly who made them, but each was labeled with a theme-related title and an artist’s name. The catrinas were about 7 feet tall and their body language showed their character because the artists carefully posed them. The artistic excellence with which they were crafted was inspiring.

One catrina had a crowd of people packed around it so tight that at first we couldn’t see what was so attractive about her. Once we pushed up close we saw that her face was glowing with opalescent tiles and her skirt was lit up from inside with shining butterflies and the Virgin of Guadalupe on a field of matt black. It was stunning and while my photos turned out good, they don’t quite capture the full effect.

You’ve really got to experience the Day of the Dead to know how wonderful it is.

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The Day of the Dead delights all of my senses. The usual rotten stench at the entrance to the market is driven out by the scent of thousands of bundles of marigolds and burning copal. Extra stands bursting with flowers, sweets, candles, and breads shoulder out an entire lane of the bus terminal.

Shopping for the Day of the Dead

It’s fun to wander through the stands asking the old ladies how much the candles cost—choosing the candles we want by their traditional, waxy smell. We count how many dead people we will honor and buy half as many foot-long candles as we need because we always cut them in half. We get a couple extra in case we have temporarily forgotten someone.

What will the Day of the Dead be like for you when you retire in Mexico?
Click here to see a description of Mexico: The Trick is Living Here, which includes a special photo gallery showing real candy skulls, bread, altars, etc.

I love fingering the candy skulls with sequin eyes, feeling shy because I want to spend money on molded sugar lumps. We flip through the colored tissue paper, choosing designs with skulls and skeletons, deciding on the appropriate blend of colors, which must include lots of dark purple, the traditional color for the Day of the Dead.

I like the way it feels to load our arms with bundles of foot-and-a-half long marigolds of different sized blooms, lacy white accent flowers, and thick, heavy lion’s foot with stems almost as broad as my wrist and convoluted, velvety blooms as big as my fists. Carrying the flowers peeking out of their newspaper wraps, I try to keep the people in the crowd from breaking their stems. My husband limits the number of flower bundles we buy, but I always want more because I love to decorate the altar with them. There is no Day of the Dead without marigolds and velvet lion’s foot.

He chooses the breads that his grandmother always made for her Day of the Dead altars, then asks me what other pieces of bread I want to put out for my ancestors. I imagine them—fondly referred to at this time of year as “my little dead ones” (mis muertitos) enjoying the breads, candies and good smells. I choose breads with pink colored sugar on top that I know they will enjoy.

We get a small newspaper cone with a mixture of copal and other incense in it, so that our dead ones will be able to follow the smell and find their way home.

Heading home on the bus, we sit in the back and relax. I pet the velvety heads of the lion’s foot flowers. They are so solid, yet soft feeling. More like giant cat’s paws than flowers.

Preparing Our Home for the Day of the Dead

When we get home we put the flowers in buckets of water and clear out an area in the front room of our house. We find a big board and something to set it on. We iron our lacy table cloth and put out a few pieces of bread and a couple bouquets of flowers. It’s the night of the 31st, the special night reserved for children. My husband finds a toy and sets it out. He lights one candle, drips wax on the board, and sets the candle up in it. He calls out his little sister’s name.

We watch her little candle flicker as we eat our dinner and chat with our neighbors.

Building the Day of the Dead Altar

The next day, I take over. I spend over an hour on the first of November sitting on the floor in front of the altar, sorting flowers, making bouquets in liter-sized yogurt containers, then stacking the broken blooms up in front of the plastic containers so that they don’t show. I tape tissue paper flags around, artfully scatter petals, lay bread out in traditional pottery bowls, set fruit in temping piles, and place candy skulls. My husband and I walk to the store and buy pop for those ancestors who liked it. He pours a little alcohol into a shot glass. He bums a cigarette from a neighbor who smokes and lays that out for his grandfather. We include a glass of life-giving water. We don’t have any pictures of our ancestors, but we think of them the whole time we are creating their altar.

We don’t eat their treats, but munch on our own pieces of “dead people’s bread” (pan de muertos), washed down with glasses of cold milk.

My favorite step is when we take the ratty flowers, and de-petal them. We sprinkle the orange petals from the altar, right out the door, through the front yard and all of the way out the gate. Sometimes our neighbor comments that our dead people won’t have any trouble finding their way to their altar. The petals are our special Day of the Dead “Welcome Home” sign.

The Special Night Before the Day of the Dead

When the moment comes, we light our copal inside, let the smoke fill the front room, then put the bowl outside the door. The copal always burns out and I spend a lot of time trying to get the charcoal and copal into the right balance. My hair and clothes smell like smoke, which reminds me of happy nights camping with my family.

We each light the candles, setting them up in pools of their own wax. We call out each person’s name. Since there are no photos, our dead people have to use their auditory memories to know where to find us. I know my ancestors aren’t busy. Mine is the only altar for them and they have plenty of time to come in and enjoy the warm, bright glow and golds and purples of their altar.

We turn off the lights and take pictures of our creation. We sit and watch the candles flicker, enjoying the smell of the hot wax. The night is quiet and the crickets sing in the dark outside. We don’t have that many dead people, but the light is still bright enough to read by! We get sleepier and sleepier as the candles slowly burn down. The night is too magical and the whole altar too precarious to sleep. We have to keep an eye on the candles so they don’t catch the whole contraption on fire. As the candles burn down, they create so much warmth that they get wobbly on their feet. We debate blowing them out and going to bed, but just can’t bring ourselves to do it. We can almost feel our dead people there with us, enjoying the light in their honor.

Read about the catrinas of 2007.

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One of the best reasons to live or retire in Mexico is to enjoy all of the wonderful Mexican holidays. The holidays here always have a community flare that will make you feel welcome and very glad that you decided to retire in Mexico. Best of all, they always include tons of delicious food.

Holidays provide a glimpse of Mexico’s traditions, both pre-Hispanic and post in ways that “regular” days don’t. In general, many holidays are set on dates found in the Catholic calendar, yet many of the foods and activities strike me as having a strong pre-Hispanic influence.

Your new friends and neighbors will want to share the traditional foods, (some of which are made only once a year for that holiday) with you. It’s a chance to connect with your new community and make friendships. Plan ahead for this by leaving time open for spontaneous activities. People will pop up with plates of food and invitations to come join them and their families at parties. You’ll want to say “yes.”

Need to know more about your lifestyle when you live or retire in Mexico?
Click here to see a description of an e-book prepared by the author of this website.

There is a cost to all the community celebration, so set some of your retirement savings aside to spend on holiday events. I’m always amazed at the amount of money Mexicans will spend on parties, even when they don’t have much. No cost is spared in treating their guests to excellent hospitality. As you become part of a network of friends and family who celebrate holidays together, you too, will want to be able to pitch-in for foods, drinks, and Styrofoam plates (it’s an Environmental night-mare, this Mexican party thing).

About the Holidays

“What’s Christmas going to be like when I live in Mexico?” may not be the most frequently asked question before people retire in Mexico, but it’s an important one emotionally. Click on the link and read all about what people, do and eat at Christmas.

“How might I celebrate the Day of the Dead once I retire in Mexico?” One of my favorite holidays in Mexico is the Day of the Dead. Now that I live in Mexico, I’ve added it to my list of events I love to celebrate. After you retire here, you might be glad for the chance to add this to your list also.

Let the celebrations begin!

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Once we spent Christmas in a small town in Michoacan, Mexico where the birth rate is still exponential. In that town the posadas are only for the kids. Someone sets up which houses will be visited by “Mary” and “Joseph,” in which order, and who will host each day’s posada. Those houses which will refuse entrance to Mary and Joseph have to make about 50 bags of candy to give away that night.

At the appointed time kids from all over town arrive at the correct home. The children don’t even notice the tiny entourage of faithful who remember what Christmas is all about as they go from home to home singing with their cute teenaged “Mary” and stiff adolescent “Joseph” (who knows how they talked HIM into dressing up.) When it’s time to give out the bags of candy someone makes all 200-some kids line up. They stay lined up for about 2 seconds, then it’s a mob of kids running about and seeing who got the better “aguinaldo.”

My husband and I attended these posadas, enjoying the punch and candies along with the kids and their teenaged chaperones.

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Two Traditional Treats
Made in Mexcio at
Christmas Time

Mexican Hot Christmas Punch
“Ponche”

Try out this wonderful traditional Christmas recipe from Mexico once you are finally living or retire in Mexico.

When Christmas time rolls around, in the biggest pot you can get your hands on—like the one grandma used to seal her canning jars in, boil the following items:

½ kilo of peeled sugar cane, cut into 3 inch lengths then split lengthwise into string-cheeze sized sticks.

½ kilo cored, and very coarsely sliced apple.

½ kilo quartered guavas

½ kilo tejocote (tey-ho-co-tey) (You have to be in Mexico to add this. I have no idea what it would be called in English. The picture at right shows two tejocotes.)

½ kilo tamarindo (ta-ma-reen-do) (This is a seed pod with a sour flavor that is common in Mexico.)

1/4 kilo prunes or raisins

1/8 kilo cinnamon sticks broken into large pieces

½ kilo piloncillo (pee-lone-see-yo) (This is a delicious form of brown sugar traditional in Mexico.)

Sugar to taste (If you can’t get piloncillo, I recommend that you use 100% brown sugar for your punch)

Boil until all of the fruit is very soft.

Serve hot with brandy or tequila on the side for those who like a little nip.

Makes 5 gallons of punch

Note: a kilo is 2.2 pounds. If you want to make this recipe in the US, multiply everything by two. The amounts are approximations and you can feel free to change the proportions in any way you would like.

Don’t worry if you can’t get the Mexican ingredients; it’ll still taste delicious!

Leave the skins on all of the fruit, it makes for better flavor and texture. Serve the punch with chunks of fruit. Part of the punch experience is getting at the fruit once you’ve enjoyed the liquid.

Buñuelos
(Boon-you-eh-los)

Another traditional treat made at Christmas and other times during cooler weather in Mexico are buñuelos. They are delicious — something like our elephant ears or “Indian” fry bread. As with all traditional recipes there are as many ways to make them as there are mothers and grandmothers in Mexico. Here is one recipe given to me by someone in my neighborhood. When you are finally living or retired in Mexico, try it out — or ask your neighbors for their version.

½ kilo of flour

8 egg yolks

1 teaspoon lard (I’ve seen it done with vegetable oil)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ kilo sugar

1 liter of cooking oil

Powdered cinnamon

Make a crater in the flour, add the eight egg yolks, the lard, and baking powder. Add a little water (the water can be sweetened with a little sugar if you so desire) and knead with hands until a soft past is formed. Keep kneading until it doesn’t stick to your hands. Let it rest a half hour and then roll out into large, thin circles. (Try to get the circles thinner than you would for a pie crust. The dimensions should be approximately 8 inches in diameter and 1/8 th of an inch thick.) Have a wide, flat pan ready with the hot oil about an inch deep. Fry the rounds in the oil until they are as evenly golden as possible (you may have to press down on bubbles as they form to make sure that they cook evenly.) Drain and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Eat while hot and crunchy!

In this recipe, the buñuelos remain crunchy and are covered by cinnamon and sugar. Other people dip them in a hot syrup made of piloncillo (a traditional brown sugar) and cloves (and other ingredients?), still others cut them up and leave them in the hot syrup until they are mushy.

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See English translation below.

SPANISH

ENGLISH

Source: Pamphlet sold at the market before Christmas. Title: Antigua Novena Para Posadas: Completa. No source or date are given.

Note: This translation is an informal one done by me. I seriously doubt that it could be used to actually sing along with the song.

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Everyone sings the following song:

Spanish:
Dale, dale, dale.
No pierdas el tino.
Porque si lo pierdes.
Pierdes el camino.
Ya le diste una.
Ya le diste dos.
Ya le diste tres.
Y tu tiempo se acabó.

English:
Hit it, hit it, hit it.
Don’t lose your aim.
Because if you lose it.
You lose the way.
You hit it once.
You hit it twice.
You hit it three times.
And your time is up.

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Christmas here is so different from up north that it can cause severe culture shock. When you live or retire in Mexico, your first couple of Christmas seasons may not feel quite like Christmas. Christmas here smells like sweet fruit cider, not like pine trees. There is no holly here. The weather is warm and sunny during the day, not cold or snowy or rainy and believe it or not, you almost never hear “Christmas music.”

Is it really different enough to cause culture shock? Read about a Cuernavaca posada

Read about a posada in a small town in Michoacan

Reducing Culture Shock During Christmas in Mexico

Christmas is so loaded with memories and expectations that a good case of culture shock during Christmas can give you even more blues than during other times of year. I recommend that before you retire in Mexico, you choose a few of your favorite Christmas things to bring with you. A familiar CD of Christmas music and your favorite decoration will serve to remind you that it is, in fact, Christmas.

Want to know more about culture shock?
The author of this website has prepared an e-book that honestly talks about this part of expat life.

Before living in Mexico I had no idea how important the sense of smell is in making us feel at home. During the Christmas season I literally pine for the smell of fir trees, which are abundant in the Pacific Northwest and were always an integral part of Christmas decorations when I was little. I’m very lucky that my mother used to put mandarins in the toes of our stockings. She had no way of knowing that I would someday be living in Mexico, but the smell of mandarins is connected to Christmas for me. It is one of the few sensory triggers that I have to connect me to my childhood memories of Christmas now that I live in Mexico.

It is a good idea to think about what makes Christmas “Christmas” to you. If you are in touch with your own feelings you will probably still experience culture shock when you retire in Mexico, but it won’t be a cause for deep sadness or anger. Being aware of culture shock can turn it into a process for getting to know yourself better. And this, after all, is the ultimate goal of retiring or living in another country.

Christmas Traditions in Mexico:
Posadas

No one ever said culture shock was simple. Living or being retired in Mexico at Christmas time can fill you with an odd mix of feelings, because at the same time that you are missing your own family traditions, you are enjoying a whole set of wonderful new Mexican traditions.

Here we celebrate Christmas with Posadas, which are a reenactment of Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging. Really serious posadas have a “Mary” and a “Joseph” dressed in bright satin robes. “Joseph” and “Mary” lead a herd of participants—usually women and children (Why do men rarely participate in such things?) from door to door singing a song in which they ask for lodging, are denied lodging, then are finally accepted.

The posadas start on the 16th and end on the 24th. Every night for 9 nights, the community organizes itself into posada routes. Each night the singers stop at a series of participating homes to sing the posada song. The last home is the one which will finally sing the acceptance refrain and allow everyone to come in.

The home that accepts Mary, Joseph and their backup singers is the host of the party, offering hot Christmas punch, bags of candies, and sometimes traditional foods to all who pass through their door. The punch is prepared in one to three huge pots that must hold at least 20 gallons each! Normally these will be on an open fire near the house. 100s of Styrofoam cups are filled from the pots, then end up all over the yard and street outside, having been used for about an hour. I always find it amazing that the same people who spend hours preparing perfect punch over an open fire, never seem to get a large enough garbage bag to hold all of the cups afterwards.

Christmas Traditions in Mexico:
Piñatas

The punch often accompanies a few piñatas. The piñatas are filled with candies, peanuts in the shell and mandarins and oranges. They are hung in an open area where people can gather around to sing the piñata song and take turns donning the blindfold, then hitting them. Someone stands to the side, usually on an adjacent roof-top, holding the rope from which the piñata hangs, raising, lowering, swinging, and moving the piñata to increase the difficulty of hitting it. Once the piñata breaks open of course everyone, especially the children, dives to the ground to gather the treats.

This is the basic idea of a posada, but just like back home in the north, each family in Mexico celebrates Christmas according to their own beliefs and traditions. Over time you will develop your own Christmas traditions for your life in Mexico. You’ll leave the culture shock far behind and won’t be able to imagine Christmas without having retired in Mexico.

Click here for traditional Christmas recipes from Mexico

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Preparations

Last year our neighbors wanted to celebrate the Christmas posadas with everyone on the block, but since by unlucky coincidence three (maybe death does come in threes) families had lost an elderly relative earlier that year, they didn’t want to do posadas. So, we at the end of the block had one big posada.

The day before, we hosts stuffed little cellophane baggies covered in Santa and holly motifs with bulk candies, flavorless Mexican animal cookies, peanuts in the shell, and mandarins. These little party favors are called “the aguinaldo.” Also, everyone who helped to host the posada bought a couple big bags of fruit for the punch.

Making the Christmas Punch

The day of the party we tidied up the yard where we were going to host the posada. We all washed and chopped kilos of fruits and sugar cane, then in the evening lit two open braziers to get some coals started. When my neighbor decided the time was right we had a burly relative of hers put two laundry-basket sized pots on the fire full of fruits and cinnamon sticks. We belatedly realized that we had no way to stir or serve the punch because we only had standard ladles. My husband crafted a handle extension out of a piece of wood wired to our largest wooden spoon.

Don’t live or retire in Mexico without purchasing Mexico: The Trick is Living Here, written by the author of this website. Click here to see a description of this e-book.

One pot was too close to the coals, not getting enough oxygen, and therefore not boiling but one pot boiled and started to smell good pretty soon. We stirred and added more wood to the fire, stirred and tasted, went to the store for another kilo of sugar and after a while had punch that we thought was good enough for our guests. Once both pots were well cooked we debated on which pot had better punch, since they each had their own unique flavor.

When the punch was almost ready my neighbor sent one of her children up to the church to tell those who were celebrating there that there was another posada down on our street. In the true spirit of Christmas she was competing with the priest, who she believed to be too controlling anyway. We had the big door to the yard closed and eventually someone noticed that guests were starting to arrive.

I “Got” to carry the Virgin

Suddenly I was called to the door. My neighbor and her sister were telling me that I was going to carry the virgin. I tried all kinds of excuses to get out of being the center of attention, starting with the most obvious: I had no idea what we were doing, nor how to sing the song (let alone how to sing any song), but it was fruitless. I was handed a ceramic statue of the Virgin Mary standing on some grass with animals around her, which must have weighed about 5 pounds.

My neighbor’s sister informed me that I was to just walk slowly up and down the street leading all of the people while they sang the song. My neighbor linked arms with me, holding a little piece of paper with the words to the song (thank goodness) out for me to see. I did my best to give the virgin a dignified cruise up and down our block, while trying not to sing loud enough for anyone to hear me. I guess I didn’t do too badly because the statue didn’t complain, though it did get heavier and heavier as we went.

When the virgin, I, and our tail of singers got back to the door we sang the part of the song that finally gets a positive response. Some family members had stayed inside and sang the reply that gave us permission to come in. They opened the door, someone took the heavy virgin, and we began filling Styrofoam punch mugs and passing out bags of candy as quickly as possible.

Sharing the leftovers

We only served about ½ the punch by the time the crowd began to thin and head out, so we sent runners to the nearest neighbors asking them if they wanted some punch. They sent over their Tupperware lemonade pitchers and we filled those and sent them back with them. We gave away a lot of the extra “aguinaldo” bags, but still had enough to munch on for the next few days. My father used the flavorless animal cookies as markers for his bingo cards later that week (and a new Christmas tradition was born).

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