Why is Candlemas Day celebrated with tamales in Mexico?

In Mexico, celebrating with tamales on February 2, Día de la Candelaria is a tradition. A practice that fuses different cultures, including pre-Hispanic rites and beliefs of the Christian faith.

Those who pay for the tamaliza are those people who were lucky enough to find the figure of the “child” in the king’s thread , which starts every January 6.

Candlemas Day culminates the cycle of Christmas festivities within the Catholic Church. On February 2, Mary and Joseph fulfilled the Jewish tradition in which the firstborn was brought to the temple for presentation forty days after his birth, when it was considered that the mother had eliminated any trace of blood from childbirth, before this it was considered impure.

The Jews had to present their first-born in the temple, and sacrifice a lamb or a pair of white doves according to their possibilities.

According to the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH), during the evangelization, Franciscans introduced the representation of the birth, and the practice of taking it to be blessed on February 2 by the godparents who lulled it to sleep on 24 December.

The celebration of February 2 with tamales

The Catholic Church instructed the ritual of presentation of the “Child God” taking advantage of the ceremonies to the gods that happened in this same period (at the beginning of February) in pre-Hispanic times.

According to the accounts of Fray Bernardino From Sahagun offerings were made to the tlaloques, Tlaloc’s assistants to ask for rain for the next harvests. “Children were offered to them, they were dressed up… and they were made to cry as an omen that there would be plenty of water.”

Tamales are a food that was offered and enjoyed at festivals in ancient Mexico since before the Conquest, including the festivals of the agricultural cycle, where different types of tamales were eaten.

The name of tamal comes from the Nahuatl, “tamalli”, which means corn bun wrapped in leaves and cooked in pot. According to mythical stories, tamales arose to be offered to the divinities.

The first tamales were made with turkey spread with chili sauce, tomato, beans and pumpkin seeds. They wrapped it in banana and palm leaves, and tied it with cords. Later they dug a hole in the ground and deposited 52 stones, on top of which they piled 14 wood units, they put copal resin on it and set it on fire.

There are more than 50 varieties of tamales; salty and sweet, the Mexicas made honey tamales. They vary from the filling, the leaves with which they are wrapped, as well as the shapes and sizes.

You may be interested in:
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– 7 types of Mexican tacos that you must try
–Mexican food restaurant tops the list of 100 best restaurants to eat in the United States at 2022

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