Pepita was a young girl who lived in a small Mexican village. Her parents were poor farmers barely able to feed their family. When Christmas was near, they both fell ill, and it was up to Pepita, the eldest, almost 9 years old, to take care of her little brother and sister, and to maintain the household.

In the village church, the nativity scene of the newborn Jesus was set up for Christmas. It was the traditional Christmas Eve procession, where the whole village went to church, candles in hand, singing hymns. The villagers were bringing gifts to place before Jesus and Mary.

Pepita struggled to prepare a nice gift. She tried to weave a colorful blanket for the baby Jesus as she had seen her mother do, but she was too inexperienced and the threads got tangled. Her attempt to sew leather booties for the baby also failed, as she was not strong enough to push the needle through the leather.

She was in despair !

As the procession began, poor Pepita watched from afar, crying, having nothing to contribute. Suddenly, a strange man appeared in front of her.

“ Pepita,” he said,

I have a message for you. Your parents will soon be better. You have to take your little brother and your little sister to the church to celebrate with the other villagers.

But Pepita began to cry even harder. “ Why are you crying, my little girl? ” he asked softly.

“ I’m sad because I have nothing to give the baby Jesus,”  she replied.

Don’t worry about it, my child. Whatever you give, baby Jesus will love it, because it will be a gift from the heart.

And with that, he opened his cloak, revealing hidden wings, and flew up to the sky. Pepita, stunned by the encounter, looked around to see what she could bring. All she could see were the unremarkably simple shrubs with a few rare green leaves. So she collected an armful of branches; gathered her brother and sister, and went down to the church.

She passed the beam through the entrance and walked towards the altar where candles were lit and people were  solemnly singing. The villagers were shocked to see Pepita arrive with her almost bare branches. “ But what an idea ! Imagine bringing baby Jesus an armful of weeds ! ” they mumbled.

But as Pepita kept on walking towards the nativity theme a sudden silence fell in the church. People started whispering, then shouting and clapping. “ It’s a miracle ! ” they exclaimed.

Pepita looked at her arms, and saw in her astonishment that each branch has become abloom with bright and lively red flowers. Thus, Pepita’s simple gift has become most saluted.

But the red flowers were not to be seen only in Pepita’s arms. When the villagers left the church after mass, they saw that the  shrubs scattered around the village were also crowned with red flowers ! When she came home, she found her parents up and recovered. It was then she realized that the strange man was an angel from above.

Since then, every year in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the hills of Mexico are covered with fiery red flowers that symbolize the blood of Christ while the star-shaped bracts embody the star of Bethlehem. It has become the symbolic flower of Christmas in the northern hemisphere. Throughout Mexico, the poinsettia is now called flor de la Noche Buena – Christmas Eve flower.

Duygu Bruce

An ancient Mexican tale recited from the book  The Miracle of the First Poinsettia, narrated by Joanna Oppenheim and illustrated by Fabian Negrin.