Updated January 19, 2007

  The story goes that the missionaries wanted the Oaxacan people to fast on Christmas Eve Day. But, hard as they tried, they could not get the natives to find any value in fasting.

  So, they invented a contest on the evening of December 23. Whoever carved the best religious scene from radishes or other vegetables would win a prize. The priests knew that the Indians were far too frugal to just allow the vegetables so used to go to waste. The vegetables would be cooked and eaten the very next day and, with so many vegetables to eat, there would be no meat that day.

  The wonderful carved vegetable scenes are strung along one whole side of the Zocolo and people form long lines to see them all. Intermingled among them are scenes made of flowers, as well.

  There were even more vendors than the night before, mariachis abounded, and music and celebrating was everywhere.
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If we thought the Zocolo had been filled with vendors before, we had seen nothing yet. This evening two side streets were suddenly filled with food and drink vendors of all kinds. An open area to the side of the Zocolo was now filled with carnival games. More craft vendors were out than we had seen before as well. Some were selling pointed hats with veils coming from the points (medieval princess hats) and matching wands with stars on the ends. Before the evening was over, almost every little girl in Oaxaca would be wearing one of these ensembles.

  Many delightful handmade toys were being sold. One which stands out in my mind was a very realistic looking pipe-cleaner spider on a string. The vendor with these was walking the entire stock of them around on the street as if they were a rampaging hoard. He was sold out shortly after dark, I noticed.

  We purchased warm "baja" shirts and later ponchos as the weather, which had been warm on our entire trip, now turned somewhat nippy in time for Christmas Eve.
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  Sometime during the evening, the baby appeared in the manger in the middle of the nativity scene. By the way, the nativity in the Zocolo was a huge scene with figures about three feet high made in pottery by Guillermina Aguilar. The baby was way out of proportion, much too large to be a newborn.  Later we were to learn that this was a tradition which came from the Aztecs.  They always depicted the new born king as quite large, signifying his importance. Nativity scenes from Mexico will nearly always feature an oversized baby looking at least two or three years old in relation to his parents. In some, we have even seen the baby depicted several times the size of his parents.

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