News Story: Holy Innocents Church

  Holy Innocents Catholic Church in Victorville, Ca hosted a celebration party for the day of the Three Wise Men.  This celebration consisted of food, dances, a reenactment of the arrival of the Three Wise Men, and Mass.  Holy innocents always has a special ceremony for this day of the year.  Many people show up from the early morning till late night.  They announced this event on Sunday on January 2, 2011 during mass and pass out a reminder of important dates from confessions, church hours, to events like this.
  During the day the church is decorated with festive colors, decorations, and a stage.  The event started at 4 p.m. this afternoon since it's a school day and the church really pays attention to the teenagers.  Holy Innocents focuses on teens to inform the about their religions and the importance of it but, mainly the church wants them to be closer to God and keep them out of trouble.  The food was set out in a long table where everyone helped themselves to the pot luck.  Their was traditional Mexican dishes from tamales, rice, beans, posole, carne asada, etc.  As the people ate performers from the church played music and watched people dance the Mexican folk dance.
  Around five o'clock everyone was invited in to watch the play of the three wise men.  It was a very beautiful and thought out show for people to really feel inspired and understand the story.  Everyone sat in their seats as Mass started at 7 p.m. till 8 p.m.  It's a very beautiful tradition that the Catholic church has. For Hispanics when they are young kids they are taught to leave their shoes in front of their room doors to see what the wise men would bring.  To them the Three Wise Men are their Santa Claus.
  Unfortunately in Holy Innocents we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.  Which is very understandable and chose to respect their rules.  It's difficult to hide a big camera. People who are curious to different traditions should witness one of these festivals "posadas" as its called in Spanish.  Not only do you taste traditional Mexican show but, you get a very inspiring show.

Here is an example of the people that gather for special celebrations like this one "Nuestro Senior Jesus Cristo" in Lagos de Moreno, Jal. Mx.