Everyone has been asking so here’s what Peruvians do to celebrate Christmas. Most people build a Nacamiento (manger scene) in their houses. They do it with this weird green paper, live plants and little figurines for the people and animals. Then they top it all off with singing Christmas lights. Some people have Christmas trees but not many, and they are all artificial. I picked one up last time I was in the city for ~$10, it was pretty crappy but I really didn’t want to spend Christmas with out a tree.
A lot of people go to mass on Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) but not everyone. I went and my one brother was singing in the choir while the other one went as a Pastorcito (a little Shepard). There was a whole bunch of little kids that participated in a procession before the mass, all the little boys were dressed in ponchos and sombreros with canes, and the little girls had their hair in braids and wore white blouses with campo skirts and little baby dolls tired around their backs (like all Peruvian moms do). Their dancing and singing was so adorable it was about the only thing that put a smile on my face all day.
On a side note a bunch of my students in my English class started bringing their kids with them to class, then one day this girl brought her daughter and her dog with her. I was a little annoyed with the dog until Tiffany mentioned that people always bring their dogs to church, why not to English class? Well a couple of days later I was in mass and noticed a dog running through the pews.
Back to Christmas Mass, I walked into the church that night and someone had brought two sheep to mass with them. One baby sheep and one mama sheep. At first I thought, maybe they were part of some kind of manger scene, nope, just someone’s pets that they didn’t want to leave at home. What I want to know is what happens when the animals go to the bathroom? I’m sure the sheep aren’t house trained.
During mass, there was this LOUD noise coming from the row behind me, I turn around and this guys is passed out and snoring SOOO loud. Someone was trying to wake him up and kept shoving him real hard but the guy just kept on snoozing. It must have gone on for at least 20 minutes.
After mass we “celebrated Christmas” at my house with my family. This meant that at midnight about 20 of us packed into our kitchen to eat turkey, apple sauce, panneton (fruit cake), and drink hot chocolate. I made sweet potatoes and crunchy coleslaw salad to go with it all since I wasn’t about to eat the turkey. I probably didn’t known who half of the people in the room were but I’m sure they’re related. Afterwards, we all went up stairs to I guess is what you would call the “family room” where my tree was and we opened presents. In Peru each person only gets one small present if even that. I gave my host parents and bothers each a brand new Nalgene bottle that I had my real parents send from back home. They always like to play with mine and still don’t believe me that they are unbreakable so I thought it would be something easy I could give them that they would like.
After we finished all of that I was soooooo exhausted, you wouldn’t even believe. After a week of being sad and stress I give myself from crying, I was so tired I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. So at 2am off I went to sleep.
3 comments:
are you peruvian???well im peruvian.
los peruanos celebramos la navidad con mucho amor,para nosotros la navidad es mas religioso,q lo material,los catolicos armamos el nacimiento,en las casas y en la plaza el nacimiento grande,en la ciudad de huanuco los bailarines se llaman los negritos y los pastorcitos,y la banda de musica ellos van adorar el nacimiento cuando nace el nini alas 12 en punto,cuando era nina era pastorcita,caminavamos todo el dia adorando los nacimientos,algunas veces me disfrasava de nino por q no avia ninos vailarines lol,sobre las ovejas si las personas llevan ala iglecia,si alguien se duerme en la iglecia es una falta de respeto q orror,aora vivo en usa,personalmente no me gusta la navidad aqui es triste como cualquier dia pero es todo material.
pero yo espero la media noche,para minacimiento cuando nace el nino dios mis hijos son gringuitos y mi esposo,les enceno mi tradicion.sorry my friend.es triste pasar la navidad fuera de la familia,pero fue nueva experiencia para ti,
are you peruvian???well im peruvian.
los peruanos celebramos la navidad con mucho amor,para nosotros la navidad es mas religioso,q lo material,los catolicos armamos el nacimiento,en las casas y en la plaza el nacimiento grande,en la ciudad de huanuco los bailarines se llaman los negritos y los pastorcitos,y la banda de musica ellos van adorar el nacimiento cuando nace el nini alas 12 en punto,cuando era nina era pastorcita,caminavamos todo el dia adorando los nacimientos,algunas veces me disfrasava de nino por q no avia ninos vailarines lol,sobre las ovejas si las personas llevan ala iglecia,si alguien se duerme en la iglecia es una falta de respeto q orror,aora vivo en usa,personalmente no me gusta la navidad aqui es triste como cualquier dia pero es todo material.
pero yo espero la media noche,para minacimiento cuando nace el nino dios mis hijos son gringuitos y mi esposo,les enceno mi tradicion.sorry my friend.es triste pasar la navidad fuera de la familia,pero fue nueva experiencia para ti,
are you peruvian???well im peruvian.
los peruanos celebramos la navidad con mucho amor,para nosotros la navidad es mas religioso,q lo material,los catolicos armamos el nacimiento,en las casas y en la plaza el nacimiento grande,en la ciudad de huanuco los bailarines se llaman los negritos y los pastorcitos,y la banda de musica ellos van adorar el nacimiento cuando nace el nini alas 12 en punto,cuando era nina era pastorcita,caminavamos todo el dia adorando los nacimientos,algunas veces me disfrasava de nino por q no avia ninos vailarines lol,sobre las ovejas si las personas llevan ala iglecia,si alguien se duerme en la iglecia es una falta de respeto q orror,aora vivo en usa,personalmente no me gusta la navidad aqui es triste como cualquier dia pero es todo material.
pero yo espero la media noche,para minacimiento cuando nace el nino dios mis hijos son gringuitos y mi esposo,les enceno mi tradicion.sorry my friend.es triste pasar la navidad fuera de la familia,pero fue nueva experiencia para ti,feliz navid happy happy new year.
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