Navidad en Queretaro, México

In Peace Corps, we are to celebrate holidays with our communities\host countries and share a bit of our culture and traditions as well. For my first Christmas or Navidad in Mexico (2014) I traveled to Queretaro, Mexico where I visited my original host family.

To honor my host family and my jolly experience I made a video! It is in Spanish and was also made for World Wise Schools Program (where I work with my sister Caitlin´s 350+ students in 5-6th grade Spanish classes).  At the end of this post I have the transcript translated in English. Its original format is in Spanish. If you would like to read along and practice some Spanish listening skills, I recommend opening the first video below (more details later)! If not, scroll to the second video and enjoy. Keep in mind it´s written so a grade-schooler can understand. If you're a teacher and want to use it for your class, let me know-I have other materials to teach your class for this specific topic.

If you´re worried about not understanding it, don´t worry---the visuals in the movie are worth it... :D My sister's class really enjoyed the film and laughed at silly things like my host family being "cookie ninjas."

Happy Holidays a weeeee bit late!

Transcript

For my sister´s students who are learning Spanish, we made them a video with the transcript to help them practice their listening skills in Spanish before they watch the official video. They have a worksheet (see below)  that they follow along while listening. Practice this exercise before you watch the official video it if you want to practice your Spanish before the final artsy-fartsy video.  If you don´t really care about practicing Spanish, jump the video at the bottom of this blog page. 

 This worksheet was elaborated by my sister, Caitlin Smith, BS in Education with a double major in English and Spanish and a National Board Certified Teacher in Spanish

Official video: Celebrando navidad con mi familia anfitriona en Querétaro, México

Translated Transcript

Introduction: Peace Corps and World Wise Schools presents: Celebrating Christmas in Querétaro, Mexico with my host family. 

Who am I?: My name is Jessica and I am from Green Bay, Wisconsin. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I work in Puebla, México. I help the government with proper use of natural resources, for example, teaching how to make maps. Additionally, I am the leader of a group of girls and women in a community called San Jose Xacxamayo. I inspire the girls to be strong and actively participate in their community. 

The three Peace Corps goals are: 

To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women
To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples serve
To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans

Christmas in México:  When volunteers travel to a new country, they spend time with families. It is important to try to relax when you´re not home living in the USA. For my first Christmas in México, I went to the city of Querétaro to celebrate with one of my Mexican host families.

We celebrated with mass and some Christmas traditions (Posada). We had sparklers, a piñata, a Christmas poem, and a toast. My family liked gifting fun presents-not serious ones-to the guests. We also ate a dinner.

Part 1: the Mass ( in the house or in a church): The Catholic religion is the most popular in México. For Christmas people generally attend mass in the churches as well as practice prayer in their homes.

Part 2:  Main Christmas Ritual: For the main Christmas ritual (Posada) they celebrate the pilgrimage of María and José in Bethlehem. This religious journey lasted 9 days: the 16 of December, to Christmas Eve the 24 of December. The 25th of December baby Jesus is born. Christmas celebrates his birthday.

For the Christmas ritual, one group stands in front of the house. They represent María y José. They have lit candles and they sing for Christmas ritual. The other group is inside the house. They represent the innkeepers. They sing that it is not possible for Maria and José to enter. Finally, the innkeepers says that they can. They invite everyone inside the house have a party.

This Christmas ritual is celebrated two ways: 1) large groups visit 9 homes in the community to represent the adventure from the 16 to 24 of December, or 2) families celebrate at home, the way my Mexican family celebrated.

Parte 3: Kissing baby Jesus: One custom is to kiss baby Jesus on his head.  

Parte 4: The Sparklers:  The locals like to celebrate with sparklers, especially the kids.

Parte 5: The piñata: Usually the piñatas have seven points to represent the seven Catholic sins. A sin is when someone has bad behavior.

Parte 6: The Christmas Poem:  My Mexican family likes to read/share Christmas poems.

Parte 7: The Toast: We made a toast to the family for Christmas. We clanked glasses and cheered in honor of the birth of baby Jesus.

Parte 8: USA tradition: Christmas cookies: Since I am a volunteer with the United States, I explained my Christmas traditions as well. I taught my Mexican family how to cook and decorate sugar cookies. This is not typical of México, so it was a interesting experience for my host sisters. They were so fast at making the cookies, we said we were "cookie ninjas!"