TAOS PUEBLO BRINGS CHRISTMAS HOME

THERE ARE MANY BEAUTIFUL holiday traditions that mark the season in Taos. There’s the Christmas tree lighting in the now-somewhat historic Plaza, Lighting Ledoux, Las Posadas, and many more of our own family traditions. But if there is one quintessential Christmas custom in our community, it’s the Christmas Eve Procession at Taos Pueblo.

As visitors from far and wide and neighbors from nearby shuffle into the ancient village of the Red Willow People, good tidings and Saint Jerome’s vespers can be heard emanating from the church. If you haven’t attended this event before, I would get there by at least 4 p.m. Search “What time the sun sets” for Dec. 24 and plan accordingly. Dress warm, too!

Now, if you have been to the Christmas Eve Procession at Taos Pueblo, you’ll remember walking past the huge adobe church into an open expanse of warm history. Finely attired dancers and church patrons gather in St. Jerome’s Courtyard as the Mother Mary is prepared for her yearly commemoration. All throughout, between the two stoic, ancient adobe buildings that make Taos Pueblo the oldest living community around, are intricately stacked towers of pitch wood, or aged ponderosa pine, known locally as ocote!

THE BONFIRES REPRESENT the fires that were still burning after the village was bombarded by the U.S. Calvary in 1847. Most families of Taos Pueblo build their own. Some are small. Some are the height of your average man. A handful of families have the means and make the extra effort to construct grandiose pillars of pitch.

Although there is no cultural or religious significance to the size of a bonfire, the families that continue to erect their stacks to the skies have made these columns part of the holiday tradition.

It wasn’t until recent times that these families began this tradition. One family started building their’s a little bigger. Then another family decided they would go a little bigger with their’s. It became a friendly competition as the years went on and as the stacks got higher and higher.

For the amount of work required to build an average 6-to-8-foot bonfire, from harvesting the pitch, to splitting it, to the actual build — constructing one so massive is no easy task. Base pieces of the ocote towers can weigh up to 300 lbs. Stacking pitch wood is not like laying Lincoln Logs. Some of the pieces are uneven. Sometimes, while building, a person may have to replace several pieces in order to get the most stable fit. Stability is especially important for these enormous bonfires. I mean, do you remember the time Chris Lujan climbed his 20-footer to give his “Water is Life” speech?

As the sun sets and Mother Mary begins her walk, the bonfires are lit. Friends and family warm themselves between the bonfires. Visitors startle from the unexpected rifle blasts and awe at the spectacle as the tiny dancers accompany the procession. But as for why Mother Mary walks this Christmas Eve? That’s a tale for next Christmas.