Paranda!

It's that time of the year when the weather gets cold, the snow covers the landscape, and the Christmas lights decorates each home with its unique brightness. Every American family knows by heart the Christmas tradition. We hang up the mistletoe for a kiss. We get the best-looking pine tree and decorate it with beautiful ornaments and lights. We sing angelically Christmas Carols. We leave cookies and milk for Santa Claus and oats for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. We try to go to bed early even though our excitement keeps us awake most of the night. The next morning, we rise before the sun and rush to open our present under the tree….

I can go on and on talking about something that most of you have heard and experience year after year. But this time, even though you will be reading an article about Christmas traditions, I bet that for most of you it’s a type of Christmas you have never heard or experience before. That is, for those who are not Puerto Rican!

Puerto Rico, the island of enchantment. Located in the Caribbean. Known for its beautiful crystal-clear blue waters, its lustrous green rainforest but most of all its Christmas traditions. For most in the US mainland, Christmas it’s just on December 25th and that’s it. But Christmas for us is called Navidad (Nativity), a holiday commemorated to celebrate the birth of Jesus our Lord, BUT it also means that the party has started! Navidad now a days starts the first day of November all the way to mid/end of January after the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian (also known as Sanse) ends. Yes, that’s right, we have the longest Christmas in the world. For those of you that might be thinking What about Thanksgiving?! Yes, we celebrate that holiday too but with a Christmas twist.

I will now mentally prepare you to what Christmas in Puerto Rico is all about!

The Parrandas and instruments

On the first day of Christmas the air seems cooler in the tropical breeze. Halloween is done and over and everyone in town begins to get into the Christmas spirit. In the Plazas of each town the people begin the festive celebration. From the Plaza people get together into Caravanas to drive around town spreading the Christmas joy. In the front of the Caravana is a semi-truck pulling an open trailer with musicians and singers inside. We are not talking about a Pandora station playing. We got people who are masters with guitars, pianos, trumpets, flutes, saxophones, tambourines, guiro, maracas, and Cuatros.

The Puerto Rican Cuatro is the national instrument of Puerto Rican and the master and lead for Christmas music. For those who have never seen a Cuatro, it has a “guitar-like function, but with a shape closer to a violin and it has five double-strings.” The Cuatro cannot be played like a guitar, it would be more like a Banjo (Just to give you a general idea). Following behind the truck we have the Paso Fino ridders and behind them anyone who wants to join the caravan in their car. People in their home rush to the streets with the sound of the music to wave at the caravana has they drive by.

The caravanas are during the day, but the real fun happens when the sun goes down.

(Before continue reading click this link to feel the experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaWWt3WSaiM )

Let’s imagine you and your family lives in Puerto Rico. Everyone in your household is tuck in bed, dreaming of sheep jumping the fence. All is dark. Its way past midnight, you would think everyone is sleeping. But little do you know a small group of your friend have decided to pay you a visit. They quietly walk outside close to your door. They try their best to tune their instruments and voices as quietly as possible to not wake you too soon. They plan out the order of the songs and then they shout PARANDA!.....

You wake up to the sound of people outside your door singing. You hear all the instruments. Your kids open the door to your bedroom “Mom, Dad the parranda is here!” you rush to get presentable and rush to open the front door. You see all your friend singing, playing instruments, dancing. Your neighbors also come out to see the parranda at your front door. The Parranda is a mixture of different songs that mostly consist of eating, drinking, and staying up late with family and friend celebrating. The Parrandas can usually start with just a few people and by the end of the night they can grow to over 50 individuals. When the parranda is over it is custom to serve drinks and snacks and join them to the next house. Every house should be prepared to receive a parranda and if you did get visited you would usually cross your fingers to not be the last house for the night. Last family visited by the Parranda needs to be ready to cook an asopao (soup) to help all the members of the parranda recover from all the drinking.

(This is a good time to just enjoy the music)

The foods and Drinks

The best part of Christmas is the foods and drinks, no matter where you are from. It’s the time of the year when we gain a few extra pounds with no regrets or cares in the world.

We have so many varieties of delicious plates, just to name a few on this image from right to left top to bottom Coquito (similar to eggnog but way better in my opinion), Pasteles (similar to tamales but made with yams), Arroz con gandules and Arroz con dulce. For a moment I was scratching my head as to how I was going to even start describing all the delicious traditional plates and then I found this article! Couldn’t have said it better myself!

https://www.instacart.com/company/ideas/puerto-rican-christmas-foods/

Christmas Gifts

As many of you should know, Puerto Rico became a US colony in 1898. It wasn’t until the US troops landed on the island that Santa Claus and his reindeers were added to the Christmas traditions. Before then Puerto Rico belong to Spain just like many other Spanish speaking countries, and just like Spain we celebrate the Three Kings Day on January 6. Instead of having a tree and leaving cookies for Santa the kids from Puerto Rico would get a shoe box fill it with grass and flowers and place it under the bed. The next day on January 6 present left by the Three Kings were placed under the bed where the shoe box used to be. Being now part of the US, we celebrate both Christmas day with Santa Claus and Three Kings Day.

The end of Navidad

Just like the saying goes “Everything good must come to an end.” But no one ever said that it can’t end with a BANG! We have been celebrating La Navidad since November all the way to January to finish it off with Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian! Also know as La SanSe, is a street festival in old San Juan that combines African and Caribbean traditions. Every corner of Old San Juan is filled with music, dancing, and circus-like performances. During the festivities people wear Caretas (also know as Vejigante Masks). These masks are usually made from Coconut, gourds, or paper- maché. Old San Juan for a full week on the 20th honors Saint Sebastian and celebrates the culmination of the longest holiday in the world: La Navidad.

We all in the island have a great time saying goodbye to the old year and receiving the new one. And most importantly we celebrate next to our families and friend. In this upcoming Christmas I wish you all Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!)

Here is one last link for you to enjoy.

https://www.google.com/search?q=A+saludarte+vengo+los+hispanos&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS883US883&oq=A+saludarte+vengo+los+hispanos&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30j0i390.12951j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e8256192,vid:ThlpU7LUZSc

I hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to research more on Navidad in Puerto Rico and who know you might be inclined to visit the island for Christmas. If you would like to hear more Puerto Rican Christmas music you can make a Pandora station called Navidad Boricua Radio.