With the holiday season coming to a peak over the next few days, the parish churches of Chapala and Ajijic will capture the true meaning of Christmas by staging live nativity scenes at their doorsteps.
Nacimientos Vivientes will be on display in the street in front of Chapala’s San Francisco church on Friday, December 21, starting around 8 p.m. As is customary at Ajijic’s San Andres church, the living crèches will be set up in the atrium on the evening of December 24, appearing for two hours from 6 p.m.
In each place visitors will see a variety of tableaux depicting the Holy Family in costumes and settings representative of distinct nationalities or ethnic cultures from Mexico and around the world. In previous years the familiar Bethlehem scene has been recreated to look like places such as Oaxaca, Zacatecas, Michoacan, Guadalajara and Monterrey, far flung nations of Europe, Asia and Africa and even the planet Mars. Other have taken on the guise of native inhabitants of the Americas, including the Aztec, Wixarica, Pure´pecha and Eskimo tribes.Many of the scenes showcase real infants warmly bundled up to play the part of the baby Jesus. Some employ live animals or alternately, adorable toddlers dressed up as the barnyard beasts that typically appear beside the manager.
Live representations of the nativity were originated by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1223. Catholic missionaries brought the custom to Mexico three centuries later. Historical records show that the custom was introduced in the nearby town of Tlajomulco de Zuñiga as early as 1550. Lakeside communities put a new twist on the ancient tradition that fits right in with the global era.
Seasonal entertainment
The San Francisco church is hosting other free cultural events with a holiday theme, including musical programs on December 22 and 23, and a pastorela (Shepherd’s Play) on Christmas Eve, all starting around 8 p.m. Pastorelas retell the Biblical tale of the shepherds’ star-guided trek to Bethlehem to adore the new born baby Jesus. In the humorous, sometimes irreverent story line, along the way the shepherds face trials and misadventures that are provoked by the Devil and countered by the Archangel Michael and his band of angels. In the end good triumphs over evil, allowing them to arrive at the divine destination.
Christmas Eve services
Across Mexico the spiritual celebration of Christmas culminates on December 24 with Misa de Gallo (Rooster’s Mass) commemorating the Messiah’s birth. Services are scheduled for 8 p.m. at San Andres, and 9 p.m. at San Francisco, El Carmen and El Refugio temples in Chapala, and 10 p.m. at the parish in San Antonio Tlayacapan.