Just a few more days until Navidad! In my last article, I discussed several of the holiday traditions in Mexico. The purpose of Part II is to provide you with resources to learn more about the Hispanic holiday traditions. I started looking for information on the Internet before I wrote the last article, but found myself spending hours reading articles and glancing through pictures! I hope that you find these resources as interesting as I did.
First, I started looking for resources to learn more about Our Lady of Guadalupe. I immediately was reminded of a beautiful children's book written and illustrated by Tomie DePaula titled Our Lady of Guadalupe. This book is written in a way that children can easily understand it, but is still interesting for adults. The illustrations are wonderful! There are several web sites dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. My favorite is The Our Lady of Guadalupe Web Site. This site contains a short history as well as links to a more detailed history, prayers and pictures. There is an option to view this web site in English or Spanish as well as several other languages. Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe offers a brief description of Our Lady of Guadalupe in English. A more detailed history can be found at Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Another good book, also written and illustrated by Tomie DePaula is The Legend of the Poinsettia. This book retells the legend of the flower native to Mexico. I particularly like this book because the Poinsettias were one of the things that caught my attention that first Christmas that I spent in Mexico. I was used to seeing little potted flowers, but when I got to Mexico, the Poinsettias looked more like trees! I never imagined that those flowers (which I almost without fail kill before the end of January) would grow so tall!
One more book that I suggest is Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. This is a light-hearted children's book that describes a typical Christmas in many Mexican-American homes.
There are several web sites that provide an overview of all the Mexican Christmas holidays. Christmas in Mexico is a detailed site that offers several articles as well as recipes, pictures, and lyrics to traditional Christmas prayers and songs. A description of Las Posadas can be found at Holiday Traditions - Mexico.
To find information on how other Latin American countries celebrate Christmas, I suggest that you take a look at Christmas in Latin America. This site lists several countries and describes their Christmas traditions. A Tico Christmas is an informative article on Christmas in Costa Rica.
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