Christmas Eve in Taos, New Mexico

We’d never been to Taos before but loved other areas of New Mexico. I happened to read a news article in our local paper about the Christmas Eve tradition where skiers ski down Angle Fire carrying torches on Christmas Eve. We decided that we’d go and see that for ourselves, plus being avid skiers it would be fun to combine a ski vacation. And since it wasn’t our year to have Christmas Eve we thought that one time we could skip the Gonzales time and do something a little different.

We packed up our RV, kids, ski equipment, food and went off to Taos. Upon our arrival in Taos we asked some locals about the torch ceremony and a couple of different people told us that although the ski ceremony was good we really should head off to the Taos Pueblo for the Christmas Eve ceremony.

We were a bit skeptical but decided that the locals probably knew best so on that Christmas Eve we went off to one of the most incredible experiences of our life as we were to find out.

The evening was cold with 3’ of snow on the ground, but the sky was clear with lots of stars. When we arrived at the Pueblo we were directed to the main plaza, an open area between the west and east pueblos. In the plaza each family had prepared pinion wood for a fire. The logs were stacked as one would stack Lincoln logs for a cabin, in a square shape. Some stacks were very high, some close to the ground. When the fires were lit the flames jumped to the clear dark sky warming us as we were between them.

We were standing together as a family when a resident asked us if we’d join their family at their fire, which was an honor for us to do so.

We later found that many of the residents went to the chapel and were in a ceremony dressing the statue of the Virgin Mary. We watched that but then went back to the plaza and were told that we needed to be in one area for the procession.

We found a place for the procession having no idea of what would happen. The only lights were the fires which had died down into small bonfires. Eventually the procession started. 4 Warriors were in front with deer rifles, shooting live ammo to the sky in order to ward off the evil spirits. The men were serious and with every shot all of us on the sidelines would jump. Behind the warriors were 4 men carrying the statue of the Virgin Mary from the chapel on 4 poles with one man on each side. Behind the men children dancers were dancing traditional dances followed by a second group of children singing Christmas Carols. A group of adults dancing followed the children and finally people singing Christmas Carols completed the procession.

We left well after midnight, the night was dark and fires were cold.