Today we celebrate my baby's first birthday! Since my mind is thinking only of one thing this week, I thought I'd share with you some of the Mexican/Hispanic traditions associated with birthdays.
First of all, many Hispanic families don't celebrate birthdays. One reason has to do with the Catholic influence on the Hispanic culture. Many families opt to celebrate the individual's "saint's day" instead of the birthday. Another reason (at least in my husband's family), has to do with the large family size. My husband's family used to celebrate saint's days instead of birthdays (sometimes several would fall on the same day) simply for economical reasons. Imagine having a huge celebration for all fourteen children (not to mention grand-children, cousins, etc.) for both saint's days and birthdays. That would run into some serious money!!! One advantage I see is that if you celebrate your saint's day you don't have to tell how old you are ;-)
For our son, we will celebrate his birthday. Since my family has lived in southern Illinois all our lives and my husband comes from Mexico, we are mixing the best parts of our two cultures for our celebrations. Actually, we are having two parties. One for the Spanish-speaking members of the family, and another for those who don't speak Spanish (basically my husband's side of the family and my side of the family). Since it is my baby's first birthday, some of the traditions will have to wait until he is old enough to participate, but I'll explain them here anyway.
First and foremost, all celebrations have to have good food! We are deciding between two main meals to serve... probably either "Carnitas" (deep fried pork) or "Tostadas de Tinga de Pollo" (Chicken with Chipotle chile on crispy tortillas). Other traditional dishes would be "Mole" or "Enchiladas". As we speak, I am baking a delicious (I hope) Pastel de Tres Leches (Three-Milk Cake). It will take most of the day to finish, but it is definitely worth it! This link "http://www.mexconnect.com/foodboard/mess..." will take you to a site that has several recipes for this cake. I used the "Los Ranchos" recipe and have had great results, however some of the other recipes look a little easier.
Birthdays for children are usually celebrated with piñatas filled with candy. Another tradition has to do with the cake. After singing "feliz cumpleaños" or "la manañitas" "http://wwwcatsic.ucsc.edu/~span1/cancion..." , the birtday boy or girl is enticed to take a bite or "mordida" of the cake. While they do this, some of their "friends" sneak behind them and push their face into the cake. It gets really interesting when the child gets older and comes to expect it, it's fun watching the dodging that goes on! Some of the best laughs come from "la empinada".
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