- “In Mexico, they sing "Las Posadas".”
- ―Panchito Pistoles
Las Posadas is a traditional song sung during the Christmas season in Mexico, Latin America, and Spanish-speaking regions in the United States, which is frequently sung each year between December 16 to December 24 (the nine days before Christmas) based on the song "Letanía Para Pedir Posada". In Disney media, it is heard in the segment of the same name from the 1944 animated film, The Three Caballeros.
Background[]
The song is heard during the Las Posadas segment where Panchito tells Donald that in Mexico, people do not sing "Jingle Bells" during the Christmas season but rather "Las Posadas". The score plays in a solemn, soft melody with soft vocals as the segment features a group of children in a village church forming a procession holding candles for light and carrying images of the Virgin Mary and Joseph re-enacting their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to which most of the shelters the two encounter didn't allow the two to stay until entering a room with a friendly person allowing the two to enter. The solemn score loops into a happy melody where it features the children celebrating with breaking a piñata after Mary and Joseph finally found shelter. The segment ends with an illustration of children gathered around a piñata.
In the original English version of the film, the song is heard instrumental with Panchito narrating the segment while in the Spanish version, a vocal version sung by an offscreen choir is heard throughout the segment, making Panchito's narration short.
Lyrics[]
Chorus: En nombre del cielo, os pido, "Posada",
pues no puede andar...
mi esposa amada
Aquí no es mesón, sigan adelante,
Yo no puedo abrir, no sea algún tunante
Venimos rendidos desde Nazaret
Yo, un carpintero, de nombre José
Entren santos peregrinos, peregrinos, reciban este rincón,
Nadie por de morada, sino doy de mi corazón
Chorus: Pray give us lodging, dear sir, in the name of heaven
All day since morning to travel we've given
Mary, my wife, is expecting a child
She must have shelter tonight - let us in, let us in!
You cannot stop here, I won’t make my house an inn
I do not trust you, your story is thin
You two might rob me and then run away
Find somewhere else you can stay; go away, go away
Please show us pity, your heart cannot be so hard
Look at poor Mary, so worn and so tired
We are most poor, but I'll pay what I can
God will reward you, good man - let us in, let us in!
Enter, enter, holy pilgrims, holy pilgrims
Welcome to this humble home
Though 'tis little I can offer,
All I have please call your own, I offer it to you from my heart
Trivia[]
- In the European Spanish version of the VHS, Walt Disney's Favourite Christmas Stories, the song is replaced by Panchito narrating the segment, just like in the original English version.
External links[]
- Las Posadas on Wikipedia.
