For centuries, one of New Mexico's most popular holiday events has been the open-air performance of Las Posadas (meaning lodgings or inns), held during la temporada navideña, the Christmas season.

A re-enactment of the journey by Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem and their attempt to find a place to stay before Mary gives birth forms the heart of this example of Spanish folk theater.

Originally, Las Posadas stretched over nine days, Dec. 16 to Christmas Eve. Each night the persons selected to portray Joseph and Mary in biblical dress go to the first house accompanied by a procession of well-wishers and a chorus, all carrying lighted candles.

There, the crowd sings ancient versos, asking people inside the house to open the door and give lodging to the two pilgrims. The answer on each of the eight nights is: "We don't lodge strangers." Everything is in Spanish, of course.

On the ninth night at the ninth house, the holy family gains entrance. A small, wooden baby Jesus is carried in, or there may already be a nativity créche (nacimiento) on display inside.

As many visitors crowd the home, sing Christmas carols and are treated with refreshments of the season.

Towns and villages across New Mexico took pride in their celebrations of Las Posadas. Some still do, although variations in procedure to accommodate modern circumstances can usually be noted.

A special case is seen in Santa Fe, where Christmas at the Palace takes place. Las Posadas, since the 1980s, has been compressed into one evening on the Plaza in front of a large throng, each person carrying a candle.

To conclude, Joseph and Mary enter the large courtyard of the Palace, followed by participants and musicians who join in singing carols.

Perhaps the most bizarre reference to Las Posadas was in a letter written in 1888 by the English missionary the Rev. Jacob Mills Ashley. A strict Protestant clergyman, he founded the First Congregational Church in Albuquerque in 1880, and a second one in Santa Fe a few years later.

In writing back to his cousin in London, Ashley remarked: "The mode of celebrating Christmas by the Mexican people [in Santa Fe] is quite different from the people in the East."

"For nine nights before Christmas," he told his kinsman, "fires were built in front of most of the houses in town, and each night a procession of women holding lanterns marched along the street.

"Those in the lead carry an image which the call the Niño Dios [God's Child], lying in a cradle over which is an arch of artificial flowers."

Ashley went on to describe the procession stopping at the first house. A woman came out carrying hot coals on a shovel and knelt down beside the cradled figure, offered it incense, then went back inside.

Next, those who had come sang a hymn of Mary asking lodging for the child. A voice from within the house answered, and told them that the place was full and there was no room for an infant.

The same sequence of events occurred on the ensuing nights, until the ninth, when Joseph, Mary and the image were welcomed in the last house. According to the reverend, "The idol was then placed on a home altar and everyone knelt down and worshipped it."

Afterward, Ashley went to the main church where a Christmas Eve service was in progress. At one point, a parishioner dressed in feathers like a Comanche appeared and threatened to shoot another image of the newborn Christ with his bow and arrows.

Others intervened and persuaded the intruder not to harm the child who was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The "Indian" had a change of heart, was won over and kissed the infant Jesus before departing peacefully.

Adding a postscript to the letter for his cousin, Ashley stated acidly: "You have in this the superstition and idolatry of the natives here and the priests keep them so."

His uncharitable statement reflects the fierce Protestant-Catholic struggle waged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for possession of the souls of native New Mexicans!

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.