I interviewed a really good friend of mine who is 19 years old and moved to the United States from Mexico City pretty recently to go to school. I thought he would be a perfect person to interview because I really don’t know much about Mexican culture especially that of Mexico City. Through some research and discovery, I did find that the city was the center for celebration and festivals across the nation and that people come here for the wonderful events. However, I wanted to find out which festivals my friend was a part of during his childhood.

Collector: “Any other celebrations you could tell me about?”

Informant: “Yes, there is one other tradition that we have that follows christmas called Candlemas which occurs on February 2nd. “This is in celebration of when the Child Jesus came to the temple. People dress up and go to church, then after there is a big party with my family and friends. We listen to music, dance, eat tamales, drink, and eat this soup called stole which is made from corn. It is always a very fun day.”

It was a very cool process to learn more about one of my good friends’ culture. After doing a little research I found out that this tradition is very close with Epiphany where everyone eats the kings’ cake and whoever finds the muneco, or small christ child, in the cake must organize Candlemas. The small child figure is then brought to the church to be blessed. Whoever drew the figure must prepare tamales and the whole family comes to dinner. This is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation and gives the holiday an aspect of sharing and community.