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December 26, 2020By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Latinos from various countries start the Advent and Christmas season with Mary, a woman with various names. This year some of the season’s traditions were cancelled or celebrated differently because of the coronavirus. But they were celebrated!
Father Hugo Cano, diocesan director of Hispanic/Latino Ministry, told The Catholic Free Press about traditions observed starting with the Dec. 8 feast of the Immaculate Conception through Epiphany, “El Día de Reyes.”
“The vigil of the Immaculate Conception is the beginning of the Christmas season in Advent” for some Hispanics, Father Cano said.
He recalled people in his native Colombia displaying vigil lights in their homes on Dec. 7, praying the rosary, sometimes making an altar to the Blessed Mother. He’s seen families here do that too, he said. People start the season with Mary. They set up the crèche and light the Christmas tree in their homes that day, he said.
At church they have just the Mass on Dec. 7, but “we have a lot of home devotions,” he said. “Some countries … have a very strong devotion to the Immaculate Conception.
People from “all those nations gather here” in the United States, where the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is greater, because she’s considered Mother of the Americas, he explained. Our Lady of Guadalupe is Mary’s title from her apparitions to St. Juan Diego in 1531 in Mexico. It is traditional to start her feast day, Dec. 12, with the Misa de las Mañanitas, preceded by the song “Las Mañanitas,” Father Cano said.
“Normally, in our Latino culture, the devotions to Mary start early in the morning,” he said. He thinks it’s a way of consecrating one’s day, family, country and work to Mary.
Father Cano organized a 5 a.m. Mass on Dec. 12 at St. Stephen Church in Worcester, where he helps out. Because of the pandemic they didn’t include a procession or the traditional mariachi band. But more than 50 people came, some bringing candles, flowers or a statue of the Blessed Mother to be placed before the altar.
“I feel the Holy Spirit in Mass; in this kind of celebration I feel it most,” said Jon Phi, of St. Stephen’s, who led the rosary before Mass. He said he was grateful his mother taught him to pray the rosary; otherwise, he wouldn’t have met the Blessed Mother, whose protection and love he cherishes.
Andy Rivera, of St. Stephen and St. Joan of Arc parishes, said people attend an early Mass on Dec. 12 “because we love the Guadalupe; she’s our mother.”
On Dec. 12 about 40 people went to St. Mary Church in Southbridge for St. John Paul II Parish’s mid-morning bilingual rosary and Mass, according to Sister Rosa Maria Campos of the Sisters Oblates to Divine Love, the pastoral assistant there.
“We are really thankful to God for the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” maintaining social distance but “very close in our hearts … praying for … our brothers and sisters affected by the COVID-19,” she said. “We were like a family.”
Other Hispanic traditions are posadas and novenas, which are held from Dec. 16 to 24, Father Cano said.
“Both … are times of getting the community together for reflection, because every day has a meditation,” he said.
Posadas involve a group of people, two dressed as Mary and Joseph, singing outside a home, asking for shelter. The people inside sing that there is no room, but eventually let them in, where food is served and a reflection given. This is done at one house each night for nine nights, Father Cano said.
People gather in homes or churches for novenas, praying to Mary, Joseph and the Infant Jesus, and singing songs asking Jesus “to come to our souls,” he said. Afterwards there are sweets for the children.
This year he arranged for Hispanic communities throughout the diocese to participate in a novena online through the Hispanic Ministry’s Facebook page, he said.
The Hispanic community at St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton started a novena-posada Dec. 15, to run through Dec. 23, on Zoom and Facebook, said Father Juan Sebastian Sanchez, associate pastor. They sang the posada song, said the novena prayers, played a song from the parish’s Hispanic ministry, and shared pre-recorded messages from families, he said.
The parish gave families tambourines and maracas to play during the novena and at Mass, since “it is sad that the community cannot sing during the joyful celebration of Advent and Christmas,” he said.
Sister Rosa Maria said St. John Paul II Parish held posadas in church with an option to connect via Zoom. She also included in the parish bulletin a guide for families to do posadas at home, she said.
Our Lady of Providence Parish in Worcester arranged an abridged novena – just the reflection, given by parish leaders Dec. 20-23 via Facebook, said Sister Susi Miranda, a Xaverian Missionary of Mary, who does ministry in the Spanish Apostolate and coordinates religious education there. People can watch a recording of it too, she said.
Neither posadas nor morning “Misas Aguinaldos,” Masses of the rooster, were done the nine days before Christmas this year in Milford. Father Peter J. Joyce, pastor of St. Mary Parish there, said that traditionally, people offer the Christ Child, for his birthday, the sacrifice of rising early.
“Here in Milford there’s a large Ecuadoran community, and they have a great devotion to the Infant Jesus,” he said. The Sunday before Christmas they process through the streets, accompanied by an orchestra and carrying figures of Baby Jesus, usually from their home crèches. Though they couldn’t have the procession because of the pandemic, he blessed figures people brought to church.
Seasonal celebrations end with Epiphany. In addition to having Mass on Epiphany it is traditional for people dressed as the three kings - Los Tres Reyes – to give the children gifts, Father Cano said.
