Christmas in Spanish La Florida, 1580
By Ben Gunter
For one magic hour this month, you can celebrate Christmas the way people in Spanish Florida did. You can join a procession that takes Joseph and Mary through the heart of historic St. Augustine in a five-stop search for shelter, then you can see a Christmas play that’s more than 400 years ago announce the birth of Jesus. It’s all free, and it all takes place during the Posadas of Old St. Augustine in the nation’s oldest city on Saturday, December 16, from 7-8 p.m.
A candlelit parade down historic St. George Street starts the Posadas. Setting out from St. Augustine’s old City Gates, led by banners, lit by torches, and moving to the music of pipe and drum, this procession of reenactors in historic garb invites you to bring a candle and join in, helping Mary and Joseph find a place where they can rest from their journey and the Christ Child can be born. The procession stops at five likely sites to seek shelter. At the first four doors, homeowners offer different reasons for turning Mary and Joseph away. The first innkeeper knows “The night is dark and full of dangers” so his “door is locked against all strangers.” The second threatens, “Leave us alone, we do not know you. Try to come in and I will show you Just how angry I can be!” The third complains “My inn is full, my guests are thirsting, the stable’s full, the rooms are bursting.” And the fourth confides, “A friendly face is all I can offer.” Only the fifth and final innkeeper calls out a warm “Welcome, welcome” for these “weary guests!”
Then a Christmas play celebrates the birth of Jesus. Called Cristo nuestro bien, this 10-minute script was written more than 400 years ago by Lope de Vega, the most prolific playwright of Spain’s magnificent Siglo de Oro, and translated just this year into crisp, clear English that’s spiced with extracts from the original Spanish, by Theater with a Mission. Here you’ll meet two shepherds from Nazareth, Timoteo and Juan, who’ll teach you how to whistle warnings to the wolves and show you how their evening with the sheep gets gloriously interrupted by an Angel shouting “Gloria in altissimus Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis!” You’ll help the shepherds echo the Angel’s message in a lively Christmas carol called Ríu Chíu. And you’ll follow the shepherds to Bethlehem to see the Child for yourself.
Procession and play both take you deep into Florida’s Spanish past. The procession re-creates an annual tradition that was established in St. Augustine by 1580. The play presents its characters as mestizo residents of Spanish La Florida, dressing the Virgin Mother like the Virgen de Guadalupe, the Angel in corn-shuck wings, and the shepherds in outfits that mix Native and Spanish traditions.
Don’t miss this magic hour, 7-8 p.m., on Saturday, December 16, along St. George Street in historic St. Augustine. Bring a candle, and join your voice in the proclamation that connects more than four centuries of Christian life in Florida: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
