As the holidays wrap, one special holiday is still going on and still being celebrated here at our Jesuit Community. What could it be?
For the longest time the celebration of the La Posada has not only been celebrated and commemorated here at Jesuit but all over the word, specifically the Latino community.
“The Posada is the remembrance of the journey that Mary and Joseph had to take before they were to have baby Jesus,” said Amanda Montetz, Jesuit’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office(DEI).
The Posada was is celebrated from December 16 to December 24
December 16 represents Mary and Joseph’s start of their journey and concludes on December 24 when baby Jesus is born.
“They were refugees and immigrants so the process of knocking on doors asking to enter and being rejected until finally they are welcomed in and then we have a party.”said Montez.
“My favorite thing about the Posada is how our community comes together to sing songs,” stated sophomore Johnny Moreno., a sophomore here at Jesuit High School.
The song “Pidiendo Posada” (Asking for Lodging) or “Villancico Para Pedir Posada,”, is normally sung when a Mary and Joseph are picked from the community to re-enact, going from house to house asking for a place to stay. As they go from house to house constantly being rejected, people join in to sing and follow Mary and Joseph as they journey to find a place to let them in.
Similar to Moreno’s claim, sophomore Sophia Diaz-Sorreno said, another sophomore from Jesuit High School exclaims that, “My favorite part about the Posada is being able to spend time with my family and friends and honoring our Lady of Guadalupe.
Within the Posada the Lady of Guadalupe is honored by the community for her courage, motherhood, and hope. She is most famous through the story of “Juan Diego”.
In tThe story of “Juan Diego”, centers on apparitions to St. Juan Diego, a poor Aztec convert, in Mexico in 1531, where the Virgin Mary asked for a church to be built on Tepeyac Hill, concluding in a miraculous image that is later imprinted on his cloak (tilma) after she provided winter roses in the middle of a hot period as proof for the skeptical bishop.
Even though the celebration of La Posada is most known for being celebrated around Latin cultures here at Jesuit we see a diverse community of different ethnic backgrounds coming together and celebrating something bigger than themselves.
“My favorite part about the misa[mass] for today is definitely the procession with La Viejen de Guadalupe[Our Lady of Guadalupe] with all the flowers into the mass and all the songs reserved for today,” said senior Jai-Lani Villatoro., a sSenior here at Jesuit Highschool.
As Jesuit continues to host cultural celebrations, Jesuit hopes to influence the younger generations into being more involved with their cultural knowledge and their willingness to express their beliefs and values.
