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Saturday, December 16, 2000

Latino holiday celebrations begin

By CLAUDIA MOSCOSO | News-Journal Staff Writer

PALM COAST — 'Tis the season to roast pig on a stick, drink Mexican pozole and eat Colombian natilla.

These Latin American and Caribbean delicacies are just a few of the holiday foods that people in Volusia and Flagler counties will have a chance to sample starting today.

Residents with Hispanic and Latino roots eat these foods after celebrating posadas and novenas -- religious and cultural celebrations remembering Mary and Joseph's pilgrimage to Bethlehem.

The celebrations, which include prayers and songs, begin today and continue for nine days.

Residents in the two-county area continue to observe these festivities, despite having lived in the United States for decades.

Sixty-four-year-old Cecilia Barrera of Palm Coast has been ensuring that these festivities are not forgotten.

This year, people in the Hispanic community, especially fellow Colombian compatriots, will be honoring Barrera for having organized novenas in the area for the last 20 years.

Speaking in Spanish, Barrera explained her motivation to keep this custom alive.

"My goal has been for younger generations of Latin Americans growing up in this country to continue observing these wonderful traditions," she said.

Barrera also hopes the novenas help to heal hearts.

"I hope the novenas sprinkle happiness over the sense of nostalgia that overcomes (adults), them being so far away from their native countries," she said.

Similarly to the posadas, people in the Hispanic community pray the novena at a different home every night. But unlike Mexican posadas, which often include candlelight processions, novenas are much more static.

Carrying various musical instruments, including maracas and tambourines, participants attending novenas gather around creatively decorated nativity scenes at the home of each host every night to pray, sing and celebrate.

In contrast, posada participants split in two groups. The majority follows a few people who carry images of Mary and Joseph outside the host home. The others gather inside the home, pray the rosary and sing traditional verses asking for shelter, or posada in Spanish.

"In the name of the Heaven I request posada, my beloved wife can go no further," states the opening text for people outdoors.

"This is not an inn, go away. I must not open, it might be a rascal," people inside reply, according to text translated into English in documents provided by the Mexican Consulate in Orlando.

As the posada ceremony progresses, people inside the host home deny shelter to those in the procession repeatedly, until the travelers pray the fifth mystery of the rosary. Only then do the hosts open the doors and offer the pilgrims shelter and a variety of home-cooked Mexican delicacies such as pozole, crusty tostadas and warm fruit beverages.

Adding to the cultural extravaganza is a tradition that Puerto Rican native Ramon Torres, now a Deltona resident, reserves for Dec. 31.

That's the day the charismatic prayer group of Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church in Deltona will be roasting a pig on a stick at a party that commemorates the coming of the New Year.

Hispanics in West Volusia generally organize posadas, given the large concentration of people of Mexican roots.

In Flagler's Palm Coast, Hispanics generally celebrate novenas, due to the diverse population of people from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Many of the celebrations in the area are free and open to everyone in the community, regardless of whether participants are first-timers or faithful participants.

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