It should be noted that in the Christmas celebrations of each year two issues inextricably linked to them are forgotten: the first, which concerns the celebration for another anniversary of the birth, birth, nativity (or Christmas) of Jesus of Nazareth and, the second, that this fundamental character of Christianity was born in Bethlehem thanks to the completion of a population census.
In the first case, a fat and absurd figure has come to replace him whose figure comes from Nordic traditions and has taken its nature in Western civilization through the Anglo-Saxons; something, therefore, that lacks any link with the Spanish-American culture, ours, and has become a substantial element of the marketing and consumerism of these dates.
Regarding the following, the Syrian doctor Lucas (San Luca, in the Catholic pantheon) reports, in the second chapter of his gospel, that, at that time, “the emperor issued a law ordering a census to be taken throughout the empire.” He adds that this census (the first, he claims) was done when Quirino was governor of Syria.
The Jews were a small nation dominated by the Roman Empire, like many other peoples, and they exercised their authority through governors. The one of that region was Quirino, as has been said, and he was in charge of having the decree that ordered the first census of the population carried out.
“Everyone would have signed up for their respective cities,” Lucas adds. Since Joseph “was a descendant of David, he left the city of Nazareth in Galilee and went up to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, to register with Mary, his wife, who was pregnant. Gone up Indeed, since the latter place is 760 meters above sea level. The distance they had to travel is between 115 and 150 kilometers, according to different versions.
The evangelist also relates that in this city “the day came when she was to have a son. And she gave birth to her firstborn, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger (box where the animals eat) because there was no place for them in the common room.”
Joseph probably had relatives in Bethlehem, and the birth took place in the house of one of them, but the space in the “common room” was not sufficient for visitors, so “they settled in the part where the animals are, which is more rustic.”
At that time, human coexistence with domestic fauna was more natural (which still often happens), and hygiene standards were completely unknown.
So the tender and musical comings and goings of pilgrims in search of an inn is just a beautiful myth that originated in the theatrical representations of the missionaries who, many centuries later, in New Spain tried to introduce biblical passages like this. consciousness of the native population of the conquered American territories. Thus the “posadas”, for example, have remained in the heritage of traditions that we are interested in (and wish to) preserve, regardless of the historical rigor to which we want to subject them.
Christmas at the first permanent mission in California.
It is certain that the first celebration of Christmas in California occurred during Hernán Cortés’ stay in Santa Cruz, now La Paz, where he had been with his people since May 1535.
After the series of vicissitudes that the Jesuit Juan María de Salvatierra had to face to start the process of civilization in California, he was finally able to establish the first permanent mission in Loreto on October 25, 1697.
In the book Baja California Missionedited by Constantino Bayle (La Editorial Católica, 1941, Madrid), transcribes the chronicle made by the same priest regarding the first Christmas Eve celebration, just two months after that foundation:
“The Eve of the Nativity [de ese 1697] Father Francisco Maria Piccolo blessed the new cross and the church with a white tree, similar to a tree called Dragon’s blood, very leafy and cheerful, of which there is great abundance in this valley; and we were able to make all our factories inside the fortification with these trees.
The new church was inaugurated with six Masses of the Nativity [tres por cada uno de los misioneros]with so much joy of all the poor inhabitants, that we all confess that we have not had better or more cheerful celebrations in those parts…”
It’s good to keep all of this in mind as we celebrate Christmas again in Peninsular California.
