The Fate of Poinsettias Everywhere

The trash.

Beisbol

We have seen many amazing nativity scenes set up throughout our travels, but I have to admit that this detail in one of them was among my favorite parts. Go Red Devils!

Tuna

In the five days we have spent in Oaxaca so far, we have attended many festivals and performances and celebrations.  Some of these have been Christmas related, and many others have just been connected to the joy of the city as this is a city that loves to celebrate.  One of the best discoveries we have made so far is a type of music I was previously unfamiliar with, called Tuna.  A little googling indicates that it descends from traditional Basque music, but it seems to be quite popular here in Oaxaca, as we stumbled across a group performing in the street the other night, and on Christmas night there were two competing Tuna Christmas Concerts in different churches.   We chose to go to one by Tuna Real Universtaria (http://www.uabjo.mx/dominios/tuna/), a group of nearly two dozen college students playing a variety of guitars, accordians, drums, and tambourines -- one guy even did backflips down the center of the church as he played the tambourine!

Last night they played holiday songs, including such favorites as Santa Claus llego a la Ciudad, Blanca Navidad, and the big crowd pleaser Los Peces En El Rio, long with a choir of children and adults.  The night ended with the entire church singing 'Noche De Paz' together.

There are many reasons why I would encourage you to come to Oaxaca for Christmas, but this type of concert was high on the list.

Christmas in Oaxaca

After a quiet day, the party continued on the zocalo for a third night. Families, vendors of ponche, balloons, scarves, corn, hot cakes.

Bunuelos!

One of the Christmas Eve traditions here in Oaxaca is to eat buñuelos, a fried dough that is dipped in a sugary anise sauce. Because we believe in experiencing local traditions, especially if they involve sugary fried things, we bought one on the zocalo tonight. I would be postings photo so you could all live vicariously except:

1) While Kay takes her photos with an iDevice that makes it easy to post them, I use our real camera which makes things more complicated. And

2) We (by which I mostly mean I) ate the thing in roughly 17 seconds and didn't get a photo at all.

Another part of the tradition involves throwing the plate the buñuelo is served on to the ground to break it. Suffice it to say that this part is less interesting when you buy them from street vendors in styrofoam bowls.

Feliz Navidad!

My Favorite

This entry of Tres Virgenes was so different, so artistic. All the energy had gone into carving these beautiful nuanced faces. My iPhone photos don't do justice to the quality.