Thursday, December 19, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 19th of December 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A quick programming note as we head into the heart of the season- both culturally and theologically- this show will come to you, as always, every weekday and once on the weekend for a longer show.

The daily shows leading up to the 25th are going to take a different aspect of Christmas- a location or tradition to look at outside of what is, at least my, traditional American Protestant Christmas (which I love, but I also like borrowing good ideas from other traditions and making them my own).

All that to say- stick around as we take you around the globe and through various traditions- AND get your last-minute Christmas historical questions to me at DanV@1517.org.

I spend a lot of time thinking and reading about the first colonists in the Modern United States and their traditions- how we got an amalgamation of English, German, and Dutch songs and characters- much of what we talk about when we talk about “Modern American Christmas” is a mash-up of that stuff.

But before the English and others made their way to New England, Christian settlers were already in Latin America. Is it a tricky story because the line between Missionary and Conquistador was a little too thin? Yes! I am interested in how the natives who did become Christian blend other winter festival traditions and their new faith (or Summer traditions! Latin America is on both sides of the equator! I’ve heard Brazilian and Argentine Christmas grilled meats are especially good).

One tradition that came from the Roman Catholic missionaries was that of the “Novena,” or series of prayers or days dedicated to a particular event, request, etc. Novena for “9” and could be representative of the 9 days the disciples waited in the upper room- 9 is obviously three 3’s- the numerology of 9 is interesting enough. But, from the 7th century in Spain, we have Novenas especially dedicated to preparation for the Feast of the Nativity.

This has come into common practice in Mexico, but spread across Latin America, of the “Las Posadas”. In fact, as some Western Europeans would begin the “Golden Nights” and the Antiphons proclaiming the coming Messiah, the tradition of “Las Posadas” was a similar 9-day devotional practice. But maybe more fun.

Traditionally, nine homes are chosen, and a couple representing the Holy Couple go from door to door looking for a room in the “Posada” or Inn. Over one evening, or 9, people follow the Holy Couple, reenacting the events of the Birth of Christ. This could evolve into a kind of trick-or-treat or someone can carry a giant piñata shaped like a star that guides the people to the final house, and their treats and traditional foods are prepared and served, and the children can smack the papier-mâché star of Bethlehem until it pops out candies.

In other places, a Novena of Aguinaldo’s follows a similar 9-day or 9-house set of homes that each hand out various “aguinaldos” or “bonuses.”

It should never noted that historically, gifts were given by the Christ child in Latin America following the older traditions, or the gifts came from the Magi- but they don’t show up until the 6th so some Latin American Christians have slowly shifted towards the American Santa who brings gifts on the 25th. Following Catholic and Jewish tradition that says the day starts with the evening, Christmas is celebrated on the 24th after sundown, often culminating in (usually) a sunrise service called a Missa De Gallo- a “rooster” mass that comes from the tradition that a rooster was the first to proclaim the birth of Christ on that morning.

We have a few more days to look at a few more historical events, Christmas in other traditions, and remembering however we keep Christmas- with whatever traditions and foods- we center it in not Joseph and Mary, or the Angels or Shepherds but the infinite taking on the finite in the Infant Christ.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary here in the Advent season and a reading about the coming Messiah and his gospel from the Prophet Jeremiah: 

31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 19th of December 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who probably can, unlike me, spell papier-mâché on the first or second try and not the million times it took me today- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man about to for reals- go make a Pico De Gallo, a delicious salsa not related to either Roosters or the Nativity- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.