Las Posadas in Guatemala 2026: Traditional December Dates, What Happens Each Night and the Songs

For nine nights before Christmas, neighbourhoods across Guatemala walk the images of Joseph and the pregnant Virgin Mary from house to house asking for posada (lodging), to the sound of turtle-shell drums, until one house takes them in and serves ponche. The traditional December 16-24 window falls from Wednesday to Thursday in the 2026 calendar; confirm the dates with the organising parish or neighbourhood.

Quick summary: Traditional dates: December 16-24 (Wednesday to Thursday in the 2026 calendar, ending on Christmas Eve), nine nights for the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy (Fray Edwin Alvarado, 2025). What: a procession with images of Mary and Joseph, a reading, prayers, a mystery of the Rosary and litanies, then the Rosary antiphon at the host’s door. Sound: tortuga, chinchines, pitos, cohetillos. Food: ponche, atol de elote, tamales. Origin: Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancur, colonial Santiago (Antigua). Community schedules vary; ask the organising parish for its route and departure time.

As of 24 October 2026, the official and press sources cited on this page had not yet published a 2026 posada programme for the December 16-24 window: no 2026 programme or routes from San Francisco and Belén in Antigua, none from La Merced or Escuela de Cristo, no Centro Histórico programme, departure times or routes from the Municipalidad de Guatemala, no PMT, PNC or PROVIAL road closures and no shuttle schedules or fares, and whether any 2026 fees, booking or participation rules apply is unconfirmed; this page will be updated when the organisers publish them.

Traditional dates: the 2026 calendar reference

These dates are a calendar reference, not confirmation of a procession at a particular parish.

Why December 16: historian Aníbal Chajón told Prensa Libre (2024) that the posadas are held during the nine days before Christmas, as a sign that the Child is about to be born, and that historically they begin on December 16, though each community sets its own schedule. Fray Edwin Alvarado, rector of the church of San Francisco El Grande in Antigua, told Prensa Libre (2025) that the nine days stand for the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy. In December 2025 Chapin TV, citing the Archdiocese of Guatemala, gave the same December 16-24 window. One caution on those 2025 articles: both printed December 24, 2025 as a Sunday; it was a Wednesday. The day-of-week column above is computed for 2026 and is not an organiser announcement.

December 24 is also a half-day public holiday from noon (Labour Code, article 127), so the traditional final evening falls on the holiday afternoon.

What happens each night

A posada is a walk, a prayer and a party, in that order:

1. The procession. The images of Joseph and Mary, the Virgin shown pregnant and without the Child, who has not yet been born in the story, are carried on andas (platforms) through the streets. Chapin TV (2025) describes the walkers as groups of families, neighbours and friends.
2. The prayers on the way. Fray Edwin Alvarado lists a reading, a prayer, a mystery of the Rosary and then litanies, which are sung for as long as the procession lasts rather than in full.
3. Asking for lodging. At the door of the house that will give posada, the Rosary antiphon is recited; the house takes the pilgrims in.
4. The welcome. Historian Fernando Urquizú (Diario de Centro América, 2018) says the host house has to show its qualities as a host, with hot drinks such as atol de elote and ponche, and special food. Prensa Libre (2024) adds tamales.

The sound of it. The tortuga, a turtle shell struck like a drum, the chinchines (rattles) and the pitos (whistles) keep the rhythm (Chapin TV, 2025), and cohetillos celebrate that someone will take the Holy Family into their home (Diario de Centro América, 2018). Urquizú singles out the pre-Hispanic instruments, chinchines and the tortoise shell, as what sets Guatemala’s posadas apart.

Guatemala vs Mexico. In the Mexican tradition a seven-pointed piñata is broken during the posadas, one point for each deadly sin; Urquizú says Guatemala leans instead toward the acts of hospitality.

What is served

Diario de Centro América (2025) connects these seasonal hot drinks with prayers and posadas held at night, when they help against the cold.

The songs

Prensa Libre’s December 2025 list of songs sung at the posadas:

• En el nombre del cielo (also listed as Peregrinos)
• Noche de Paz
• Arre Borriquito
• El Burrito Sabanero
• Campana sobre campana
• El niño del tambor

Where it comes from: Hermano Pedro and Antigua

Guatemala’s posadas trace back to colonial Santiago de Guatemala, today’s Antigua, and to Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancur:

• Fray Edwin Alvarado says Hermano Pedro’s arrival, on February 18, 1651, brought the love of nativity scenes and the posadas; at first they were held in front of church façades, and only churches were allowed to set up nativity scenes.
• The government news agency AGN notes that in Advent he used to organise the traditional posadas in Santiago de los Caballeros, and credits him with carrying the Christmas traditions from the churches into the homes.
• Aníbal Chajón (in Prensa Libre, 2024 and 2025) explains that novenas had existed in Catholicism since the Middle Ages and that the Franciscans already prayed them in Santiago before Hermano Pedro arrived; Hermano Pedro’s version carried the image of the Niño Jesús from cell to cell for nine nights, the friars later let lay people in, and when the custom moved to the streets the images of Mary and Joseph replaced the Child.
• Urquizú (Diario de Centro América, 2018) places the first representations in the 16th century, as theatrical sacramental plays; the Church later replaced the people playing Joseph and Mary with statues.

Urquizú also ties the posadas to the devotion to the Virgen de la Expectación del Parto, the image of Mary awaiting the birth (Prensa Libre, 2024).

Watching or joining one

Chajón’s point that each community sets its own schedule means there is no single national programme to look up: the posada is organised by a neighbourhood or a parish. In Antigua, the church of San Francisco El Grande is the one whose rector, Fray Edwin Alvarado, spoke about the tradition in 2025. The traditional final posada falls on December 24, the night of the family dinner and the midnight fireworks covered in our Christmas in Guatemala guide.

The sources checked on October 23, 2026 did not list a confirmed local 2026 posada programme; watch San Francisco and Belén in Antigua and the Municipalidad de Guatemala for Centro Histórico announcements, and ask La Merced or Escuela de Cristo directly about their own posadas.

Antigua: last year’s programme, not the December 2026 schedule

Banco Industrial’s El Nacimiento El Santo Hermano Pedro listing ran from December 5, 2025 to January 6, 2026, open 9:00 AM to 8:30 PM. The venue was Iglesia Belén sobre la Calle del Hermano Pedro, Antigua Guatemala.

The historical posada entries are reproduced in their original Spanish:

Guatemala City: historical local dates

In 2022, AGN reported that the Municipalidad de Guatemala Centro Histórico posada was scheduled from December 9 to December 17, departing at 17:30 horas and visiting emblematic places in the old city centre. The project had been organised since 2001 as part of revitalising the Centro Histórico, promoting heritage, culture and traditions in a family activity with chinchines, turtle shells and seasonal melodies. These are historical details, not the 2026 route or departure time.

Where to stay nearby

For the diaspora

The posadas run on Guatemala’s clock. Guatemala does not use daylight saving time, and in December the US is on standard time, so if a posada sets off at 7:00 PM in Guatemala, that is 7:00 PM Central, 8:00 PM Eastern and 5:00 PM Pacific. For the drinks and food, see our recipes for ponche, tamales colorados and buñuelos.

Sources

• Prensa Libre, Posadas navideñas: qué son, cuándo y por qué se realizan en Guatemala, December 11, 2024 (Aníbal Chajón, Fernando Urquizú).

• Prensa Libre, Posadas navideñas 2025, November 24, 2025 (Fray Edwin Alvarado, Aníbal Chajón).

• Prensa Libre, Cantos tradicionales de las posadas navideñas en Guatemala, December 15, 2025.

• Chapin TV, December 13, 2025, citing the Arzobispado de Guatemala.

• Diario de Centro América, Las Posadas, una tradición de amor y hospitalidad, December 18, 2018 (Fernando Urquizú).

• AGN, Nacimientos y posadas forman parte de la rica tradición del país.

• Diario de Centro América, Los sabores de diciembre, December 11, 2025.

• Labour Code, article 127.

• AGN: Nacimientos y posadas forman parte de la rica tradición del país, December 20, 2023

• Diario de Centro América: Las Posadas, una tradición de amor y hospitalidad, December 18, 2018

• Prensa Libre: Posadas navideñas 2025, November 24, 2025

• AGN: Posada del Centro Histórico, December 9, 2022

• Banco Industrial: El Nacimiento El Santo Hermano Pedro

Linked sources accessed 23 October 2026.

Related guides

• Christmas in Guatemala — the whole December calendar
• Quema del Diablo — December 7
• Virgen de Guadalupe — December 12
• Santo Tomás festival in Chichicastenango — December 18-21
• Guatemala holidays — December 24 and 31 are half-day holidays
• Guatemala weather in December — what the month is like, from the month-by-month guide