Curious

Today is Víspera de Reyes, the eve of Three King’s Day. If you are placing a shoebox full of cabbage beneath your bed tonight, chances are strong that you’re Puerto Rican (or Boricua).

Few celebrate the Christmas holidays as extensively as the Boricuas, whose traditions closely intertwine with those of the Catholic Church. Boricua Christmas consists of a month of consecutive holiday feasts. So, regardless of the every-growing influence of the United States on both Puerto Rico’s emigrants and the island, Boricua Christmas has been slow to homogenize:

• December 16-24th: Puerto Ricans celebrate Misas de Aguinaldo, a series of early morning Catholic masses which prove almost exclusively song services. These song services include religious and traditional aguinaldos (Puerto Rican Carols) which are labeled villancicos to separate them from their more rowdy counterparts. Unlike the majority of Puerto Rican celebrations, this tradition originated in Mexico and then spread to the Carribean.
• December 24th: At midnight, Misa de Gallo (the last Misa de Aguinaldo) provides a weighty climax complete with carolers, crèche, and candles. Of course, Nochebuena is Christmas Eve. Boricuas gather for celebrations, encouraging the excessive consumption of lechón asado (pit-roasted pig) and pasteles, that stretch late into the night.
• December 25th: Navidad proves more similar to the typical American celebration as it came from the States. Houses are decorated with lights. Santa spreads his good cheer. Nativity scenes crowd a corner of the home or yard (although nacimientos, scenes with the Three Wise Men/Los Reyes, hold more prominence than they are typically given in America). Caroling, or parrandas, plays an important role too. Puerto Rican parranderos creep out late in the night and assault unsuspecting households by waking them with aguinaldos (often criollo in flavor) at their doorstep. Each home that suffers a surprise joins the party of parranderos and the group continues throughout the neighborhood, growing louder and larger the longer they sing. This year even our Philadelphia newscast included video footage of Ricans’ rowdy carolling. The holiday meals include a feast of arroz con gandules, plátanos, and more pasteles. (Where it is possible, spit-roasted pig often fills the air with fragrance all day too.) Custard, nougat, and sweet rice fill the dessert menu.
• December 28th: Dia de los Inocentes also includes a feast. Traditionally, it’s quite carnivalesque, full of tricks and treats that remind one of April Fools’ Day in the States. (Horribly ironic, considering the religious significance of Herod’s Bethlehem massacre.) Few Boricuas celebrate it as such anymore because the tradition was much more strongly tied to the canarios, their ancestors from the Canary Islands. At most, it is a day of foolery.
• December 31st: Año Viejo includes fireworks and late night parties which climax at midnight when the chimes signal a new year. In honor of the literary, many Puerto Ricans participate in a reading of (the sentimental and humorously sexist) “El Brindis del Bohemio,” an occasional poem marking the holiday spirit. In Philadelphia (as on the island, I hear), Boricuas rush into their driveways or onto the streets in order to honk their horns or sound firecrackers in honor of the new year.
• January 5th: Víspera de Reyes, the eve of El Día de Reyes, honors the three Wise Men, as sainted and named by the Catholic Church. Traditionally, this day parallels the spirit of an American Christmas Eve. Children bounce with anticipation of the Kings’ midnight visit. Each child places a shoebox, filled with grass, cabbage, or other greenery for the traveling horses/camels to munch on, beneath their bed. On top of the bed of grass, the children place a gift wish list for the Magi. All children are admonished to be well-behaved and quick to sleep so that they do not scare away the Kings’ horses.
• January 6th: On Día de Reyes, Puerto Ricans remember the Wise Men and their adoration of Christ. Día de Reyes, it follows, parallels the mainland celebration of Christmas. Children awake at ungodly hours to discover a wealth of gifts beneath their bed, thanks to the generous Baltazar, Melchor, and Gaspar (yes, our Three Wise Men or Los Reyes Magos). Relatives bring boxes from beneath their own beds, filled with gifts which happen to be intended for the children whom the relatives are visiting. At some point, the family passes rosca de reyes, a beautiful ring of bagel-like breakfast bread decorated with candied fruit. The next three days include feasts in celebration of each Wise Man, backed by the legend and sainthood bestowed by the Catholic Church:
• January 6th: Saint Gaspar (Emperor of the “Orient”) Day
• January 7th: Saint Melchor (Sultan of Arabia) Day
• January 8th: Saint Baltazar (Nubian and Ethiopian Ruler) Day
• January 15th: Las Octavitas, a celebration in honor of the faith of the Wise Men, serves as a prelude to la Cuaresma (Lent) for the religiously observant. During this time Puerto Ricans also visit the homes of those who came to their own during the holidays. Today January 15th signals that it is time to take down the decorations and pack them away for another year. (As you can imagine, the secularization of these holidays typically shortens the celebrations to a two-week period, beginning Christmas Eve and ending on Kings’ Day.)

As a Protestant, third-generation puertorriqueña, I find certain Rican traditions startlingly logical (e.g., gift-giving on Día de Reyes). During the holidays, some Protestant celebrations share many of the same elements as these Rican traditions: song services, crèches, nativity plays, worship gatherings. Of course, a deeper look reveals a deliberate, theological divorce from Catholic sainthood, masses, rites, etc. That being said, many Protestants have separated themselves from all but stark observations of any religious holiday in reaction to the grandiose, liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church (which most Protestants believe to be largely heretical in its teachings and observances). In the home, modern Protestant celebrations involve little more than a nativity, the reading of Luke 2:1-20, and a tree. P. and I wonder over the ironic juxtaposition of Protestant hesitation in the development of distinctive, religious celebrations and the loud rally cries to “keep Christ in Christmas” or “make” Jesus “the reason for the season.”

Last Sunday P. and I taught the children in our church during the service. The Bible passage was the-one-and-the-same Adoration of the Christ. We incorporated a living crèche into the lesson, epilogued by an explanation of the Bethlehem massacre and discussion of divine sovereignty. It’s so easy to stop with what is familiar (Mary, Joseph, and the manger) and forget the wealth and breadth of detail the story of Christ’s nativity relates. This experience led me to toy with the idea of gingerly Protestantizing Día de Reyes by adopting the aspects which religiously affirm our own creed and celebration of the gospel. Yes, I’ve thoroughly analyzed the irony my bald, communal reconstruction of Día de Reyes would prove, but it’s to no avail. I just don’t mind if I do.