Las Posadas foods in the Skylands

Las Posadas began indoors, as nine Masses. In the 1580s a friar, Diego de Soria, got the pope’s permission to say them from December 16 to 24, and the first posada was held at the Augustinian convent of Acolman, close to Teotihuacán. Only later did the custom move out to streets and patios, with pilgrims asking for lodging, and pick up its food along the way.

Ponche is a hot punch of tamarind, prunes, hibiscus, sugar cane and cinnamon, sweetened with piloncillo. Champurrado is atole thickened with masa and flavored with chocolate, an old pairing in Mesoamerica. Tamales go back at least to the Aztecs, who kept a feast called the Eating of Tamales Stuffed with Amaranth Greens.

Colombia’s version is the Novena de Aguinaldos, prayers written by a Quito-born Franciscan, Fernando de Jesús Larrea, and published in 1743. Natilla, buñuelos and arroz con leche follow, and the custom has spread well past the living room: some companies assign each night to a department, which supplies the snack. A writer who grew up in Bogotá said of buñuelos in NBC News, “never met a person who dislikes these,” and called the natilla with raisins “not so yummy for me.”