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EveryParampara

Next: 16 to 24 Dec 2026

Las Posadas

Nine nights of processions that re-enact Mary and Joseph's search for room, ending with a piñata and ponche.

A pattern drawn for this day, not a photograph.

When is Las Posadas in 2026?

Las Posadas 2026 runs from 16 to 24 December 2026. Other years: 2027, 16 to 24 December 2027; 2028, 16 to 24 December 2028.

About Las Posadas

Las Posadas are held from 16 to 24 December in Mexico and parts of Central America and the southwestern United States. The word means "inns". Each night a group of neighbours and family members, including children dressed as Mary and Joseph or carrying their figures, walks through the neighbourhood singing a call-and-response song at the doors of houses where they ask for lodging. Those inside first refuse, then relent, and the visitors are welcomed in for a party. The hosts offer hot ponche, a fruit punch, tamales, buñuelos, and small bags of sweets and fruit, and children take turns to break a star-shaped piñata, its seven points for the deadly sins. The ninth night ends at Christmas Eve with a midnight mass.

Las Posadas dates: 2026, 2027, 2028

YearLas Posadas date
202616 to 24 December 2026
202716 to 24 December 2027
202816 to 24 December 2028

What is eaten

  • ponche
  • tamales
  • buñuelos
  • atole

Traditions of Las Posadas

PiñataThe star-shaped clay or paper pot.

Also part of it, and being written: Ponche navideño (The warm fruit punch.), Nativity of Jesus (The story re-enacted.).

About this page

Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background: "Posadas" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

  • Piñata: No machine-readable author provided. JEDIKNIGHT1970 assumed (based on, Public domain, source

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