Across Mexico it is customary to for people to concentrate Navidad (Christmas) festivities on the night of December 24 — Nochebuena, rather than the following day.
For people of the Catholic faith, the celebration often begins with attendance at the Christmas Eve celebration of the Misa de Gallo (Rooster’s Mass) commemorating the Messiah’s birth.
The church schedule for Chapala lists Misa de Nochebuena at the San Miguel chapel, 8 p.m., and at 9 p.m. at the San Francisco Parish, and the El Carmen, El Refugio, Cristo Rey, Guadalupe and Santa Cruz temples. Celebration of the Christmas Eve Eucharist usually take place between 8 and 11 p.m. in other lakeside localities. (Services are also held at different hours established on Christmas Day to fulfill the mandated date of holy obligation.)
After the Misa de Gallo, families gravitate to their homes to share a holiday feast that may consist of pozole (hearty pork and hominy stew), roasted turkey or pork dishes, or a vat of steaming tamales. Popular sides may include a holiday salad, a pasta dish, and other choices typical of a specific region.
Family bashes usually continue into the wee hours with gift exchanges, piñata cracking and lively social interaction, bolstered with high volume boombox music and plentiful consumption of favorite booze and soft drinks.
Christmas Day activities are generally subdued as people take time out to recuperate from sleep deprivation and hangovers from excess imbibing.