Las Posadas is celebrated in Mexico from December 16th until Christmas. Las Posadas literally means “the inns”. The Christian festival is based around a reenactment of Mary and Joseph trying to find lodging at numerous inns and being turned away.
People sing the song Villancico para pedir posada (Searching for an Inn Carol). In the song Joseph and Mary are requesting lodging at an inn. Here, you can hear part of the song in a YouTube video. The lyrics that are sung are shown below in Spanish, and with an English translation.
Las Posadas
En el nombre del cielo,
yo os pido posada,
pues no puede andar,
mi esposa amada.Mi esposa es María
La Reina del cielo
Os pido posadas
Por esta noche.English Translation
In the name of heaven
I request lodging from you,
Because she cannot walk,
My beloved wife.My wife is Mary
Queen of Heaven
We ask for lodging
For tonight.
You can learn more about Las Posadas in my earlier post and read the entire song.
Many thanks to Monique Palomares of Mama Lisa’s World en español for helping with the lyrics.
Coming soon: The Sheet Music for Las Posadas!
This article was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Holiday Songs, Holidays Around the World, Languages, Las Posadas, Las Posadas, Las Posadas Songs, Mama Lisa, Mexican Children's Songs, Mexico, Spanish, Video, Villancicos para pedir posadas - Carols about Requestin, YouTube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
PEREGRINOS:
En el nombre del cielo
Os pido posada
pues no puede andar
mi esposa amada.
CASERO:
Aqui no es mesón
sigan adelante
pues no puedo abrir
no sea algun tunante.
PEREGRINOS:
No seas inhumano,
tennos caridad,
que el Dios de los cielos
te lo premiara.
CASERO:
Ya se pueden ir
y no molestar
Porque si me enfado
los voy a apalear.
PEREGRINOS:
Posada te pide
amado casero
por solo una noche
la reina del cielo.
CASERO:
Pues si es una reina
quien lo solicita
¿cómo es que de noche
anda tan solita?
PEREGRINOS:
Mi esposa es María
es reina del cielo
y madre va a ser
del divino verbo.
CASERO:
Eres tu José
Tu esposa es María
Entren peregrinos
No los conocía.
ENTREN SANTOS PEREGRINOS,
PEREGRINOS, RECIBAN ESTE RINCON
Y AUNQUE ES POBRE LA MORADA,
LA MORADA, SE LOS DOY DE CORAZON.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
We are combining the public and Catholic school in a Lantern Festival about Giving – in town. We are putting on a small Las Posadas skit with high school and middle school students. Many of the young students are Hispanic. Do you have a simple skit we coud use to inform viewers about the Las Posadas Festival?
December 9th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I loved the video of Las Posadas. Is there any inforamation on who to contact in order to get the piano sheet music used for this video so we can do one at our church?
Thanks!
December 29th, 2012 at 7:10 pm
I would like an english translation of the Las Posada they celebrate in Jalisco Mexico. My grandson-in-law is from Jalisco and his family recite the rosery and sing this song that I can’t understand it says things like orro nino etc. They also take baby Jesus and rock him before they put him in the manger. Could you please send me a translation of this celebration???
December 29th, 2012 at 7:29 pm
Do you have the original lyrics Toby?
September 16th, 2013 at 12:19 am
Great stuff! Is there a video of bilingual posadas?
November 10th, 2019 at 6:46 pm
Is the sheet music for Las Posadas available? We have many Spanish speaking members of our congregation and we want to sing this carol as a choral item in Church in our Christmas service.
Many Thanks
Roger.
November 11th, 2019 at 2:01 pm
You can find a free score for Las Posadas here and here.
There are also some you can buy if you search on Google.