Spending the Holidays in Latin America? These are 5 Phrases You Need To Know.
A language and cultural guide to Latin America during the holiday season!
Felices Fiestas compadres! If you’re spending the holidays in Latin America, you might notice that we Latinos do things a little different. After learning these five phrases, you’ll be tossing back coquito and making sure you’re first in line to eat lechón. But be warned...you may find yourself a little more than tipsy on New Year’s Eve, eating exactly 12 grapes while swinging empty luggage around the block.
(Puerto Rican coquito)
If you find yourself in Puerto Rico in December, you may hear a lot of rumbling about a parranda. A parranda is a Puerto Rican music tradition and THE social event of the season. Expect a group of friends at your front steps playing loud live music until you let them in. Trumpets, guitars, the whole works. It’s a pachanga, baby! Once inside, the guests are greeted with treats like mofongo (mashed plantains), arroz con dulce (rice pudding), and coquito, whose coconut-sweet goodness puts American eggnog to shame. Warning: NEVER, I repeat, NEVER say whose recipe you liked better. Doing so is a slippery slope and you will become the social pariah of the holidays. Seriously, don’t mess with Puerto Ricans and their coquito.
Nochebuena
Nochebuena is the night of Christmas Eve. In a lot of Latin American cultures, this is a bigger feast than Christmas Day itself, and it features a big family dinner centered around lechón. Physically, lechón is a roasted pig, but emotionally it’s much much more than that. Cooking it takes sweat, dedication, and a whole lot of love. In Cuban tradition, lechón is cooked in a ‘Caja China’ (a large box) below hot coals. Alongside this good food is a night of drinking and dancing until you stumble your way over to Misa De Gallo (Midnight Mass) which concludes the Christmas celebrations.
Para pedir Posadas:
(A holiday-themed pinata fest)
In English, this literally translates to ‘asking for a place to stay.’ The translation may sound odd, but the tradition is rooted back in the biblical story of the Nativity. Celebrated in multiple Latin countries, Las Posadas begins on December 16th and ends on Christmas Eve. These nine days or ‘novena’ represent the nine-month pregnancy of Mary. What follows is this: two people dress up as Mary and Joseph and visit houses designated as “inns.” The community walks down the street, singing songs until one house finally lets them in. At the end of each night, everyone celebrates with Christmas carols, food, and piñatas for the kids.
¡Cantemos villancicos!
“Let’s sing carols!” ‘Villancicos’ are Christmas Carols, and the people who sing them are called ‘Cantantes de Villancicos.’ No matter which Latin American country you’re in, you’ll find yourself singing. Make sure to pack some herbal teas and keep that voice warm, because you’ll have a tiring but delightful evening. Here are some villancicos en español (that aren’t “Feliz Navidad”) to get you into the spirit.
¡Feliz Año Nuevo! / ¡Feliz Año!
(Año Nuevo in Cartagena)
Just like their other celebrations, Latinx people throw the best New Years parties, infused with some special traditions. Some are universal, like eating twelve grapes (each representing one month of the year) as a symbol of good luck. Others are a bit more unique. In Colombia, people walk around the block with an empty suitcase for hopes of traveling more in the New Year. In Chile, you must sweep the house from inside out to erase the past. For Cubans, throwing a bucket of water outside does the trick. All over Latin America, traditions run deep when ringing in the new year!
We hope you enjoy your holiday season, and if you find yourself in Latin America, don’t forget to take these phrases with you! Felices Fiestas!
Comment below and let us know your favorite tradition!
JP Linguistics Holiday Gift Guide 2018 - Our Favorite (Authentic) Gifts From Around The World
JP Linguistics Holiday Gift Guide 2018
Our Favorite (Authentic) Gifts From Around The World
The holidays are upon us and, this year, we wanted to round up a few of our favorite (authentic) foreign brands and share unique products with you, ideal for stocking stuffers and holiday gifts. Why did we create this guide? It’s because we know that sometimes around this time of year, gift-giving can feel like an obligation rather than a genuine act of kindness towards someone else. So, instead of picking up a random gift for someone just because, we wanted to introduce you to some (foreign) brands we love to make your gift giving more unique and thoughtful. What we look for in brands we love is authenticity and this guide has just that. We’ve included brands from France, Italy, Spain and South American (some of whom we know personally, but none of which we are being paid to advertise for) such as Le Slip Français, Mille Feuille Bakery, Asaro, Leone, Jolii Cosmetics, 1880, Ecoalf and more.
In addition, some of these brands have incredible philosophies that we are proud to support. For example, Ecoalf is a company from Spain that upcycles waste found in our oceans to create some of their products including shoes. Marianella Asto is an artisan from Peru who handcrafts alpaca wool gloves and sells them via her shop online with UNICEF. Asaro is a family-run organic olive farm based in Sicily that manually harvests their olives (making all of their products GMO and chemical free). Learn more about these brands by browsing through the entire guide which you can download below. The PDF includes links to each product for easy shopping. We hope you enjoy and, if you happened to buy any, let us know! We’d love to hear about your experience and if you love them just as much as we do.
Happy Holidays from all of us at JP Linguistics!
