The tradition is that those who had rosca de reyes on January 6th, and found a little plastic-baby in their slice are obligated to buy tamales for their family and friends.
If you happen to be here this weekend, I highly recommend the Feria del Tamal, at the Museo de Culturas Populares in Coyoacán. This celebration is related to the Día de la Candelaria, the day in which Mexicans take Baby Jesus to the church to be blessed and then eat tamales and atole.
The whole celebration is related to biblical times when Hebrew first born children were saved from the Angel of Death, in opposition to the fate suffered by Egyptian elder children. Accordingly to the Leviticus, Jews celebrated this historical event by taking their first born children to the temple, also offering a couple of white doves or a lamb, depending on how rich was the family. This ritual had to be accomplished 40 days after the child was born. In the case of Jesus, it is February 2nd, since he was on December 25th. That is why during these days you will see people offering their professional services to dress-up baby Jesus, so he can be blessed wearing proper clothes. The catholic celebration mixed with the Mexican indigenous tradition of taking corncobs to the temple to offer them to small gods that protected the harvest.
The Feria del Tamal is interesting because of the wide variety of tamales that you can eat there. Producers from different places of Mexico such as Oaxaca, Puebla, and Yucatán come to offer their particular way of making tamales. What I think is most attractive of this fair though, is that it also gathers producers from different parts in Latin America, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua y Perú making this event a unique opportunity to know different cuisines from the continent.
One more tip: please, don’t say tamale. The word is tamal, without the “e”.
Feria Internacional del Tamal, Museo de Culturas Populares, from January 30th to February 2nd. Avenida Hidalgo 289, Coyoacán
Thanks so much for this–a perfect reason to re-announce your blog on mine–www.mexicocitydf.blogspot.com
Saludos, Jim J.
Having only just discovered your amazing site I’m really pissed off that I have done so only after visiting Mexico City. My husband and I, Australians from Sydney, spent several weeks in Mexico Last October/November after a brief visit to Havana. We spent only 5 nights in el DF but loved it. Now we can only weep at how much more fun we could have had, how much more we would have experienced and understood if we had known about Macha Mexico……despite being gay men there’s a whole lot of talent, experience and expertise we’ve gleaned from your website. Thanx heaps,
Desde “Down Under”
David and Derek
Congratulations!
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