Aguinaldo (music)

Aguinaldo It is a genre of

holiday season. Aguinaldo music is often performed by parrandas - a casual group of people, often family or friends, who merrily go from house to house taking along their singing. The instruments used are four, maracas and drums. Some popular aguinaldos are Burrito Sabanero (Venezuela), El Asalto (Puerto Rico), Feliz Navidad

(Puerto Rico), and De la Montaña Venimos (Puerto Rico).

Venezuelan aguinaldo

In

maracas. Other instruments often used are violin, guitar, tambourine, mandolin, bandol, caja (a percussive box instrument), and marímbula (an Afro-Venezuelan instrument). In exchange for the entertainment, "parranderos" are traditionally given food and drink: hallacas, panettone, rum and "Ponche Crema" (a form of alcoholic eggnog

). Aguinaldos are also played at Christmas church celebrations.

Puerto Rican aguinaldo

In Puerto Rico, the aguinaldo is a musical gift offered during the Christmas season and is a tradition inherited from the island's Spanish colonizers. As a musical gift, aguinaldos are mostly played by "parranderos" or "trullas" during the Christmas holidays. While parrandas, showing up at a residence late at night, with a group of Christmas carolers, is a practice that is slowly being lost in Puerto Rico,^[1] a Puerto Rican aguinaldos album debuted in the top 10 Billboard Tropical Albums in December 2019.^[2]

Originally, aguinaldos were "

maracas. With bordonua players becoming more difficult to find, the guitar became a staple accompanying the cuatro. Today, panderos (also known as "pleneras"), brass instruments and whatever makes noise, are used.^[1]

As a genre, the aguinaldo is played mostly on the radio on key Christmas holidays in Puerto Rico; the day before Christmas, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, the day before Three Kings Day, and on Three King's Day (January 6).[3] Aguinaldos are also played at Christmas church celebrations.^[1]

In 1918, Puerto Rican Aguinaldo's and Décimas and other notes, as compiled by American linguist, John Alden Mason, and Aurelio M. Espinosa were published in the Journal of American Folklore.

Philippine aguinaldo

In the Philippines, the word aguinaldo has come to refer instead to the gift—usually cash or coins—collected by small groups of children that go carolling. A traditional instrument used is a makeshift tambourine made of several tansan (aluminium bottle caps) strung on some wire. Carollers solicit homeowners with the chant "Namamasko po!" (approx. "wassailing!"), and after singing wait to be rewarded with aguinaldo.

Trinidadian aguinaldo

Aguinaldo or Serenal is a music genre used in Parang (Parranda) a type of Christmas music that came to Trinidad and Tobago from Venezuela. Singers and instrumentalists (collectively known as "parranderos") travel from house to house in the community, often joined by friends and neighbours family, using whatever instruments are to hand. Popular parang instruments include the cuatro and maracas (locally known as chac-chacs).

References

^
JSTOR 534783
.

^ "Puerto Rico's 'Tiempos de Aguinaldo' Debuts Top 10 on Tropical Albums Chart". Billboard.
^ "Contento Nano con 'Tiempos de aguinaldo' – Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular | San Juan, Puerto Rico" (in Spanish). 22 September 2019.

Atlas de Tradiciones de Venezuela,
Fundación Bigott
, 1998.

External links

[Puerto_Rican_Aguinaldo-1] 
JSTOR 534783
.

[2] "Puerto Rico's 'Tiempos de Aguinaldo' Debuts Top 10 on Tropical Albums Chart". Billboard.

[3] "Contento Nano con 'Tiempos de aguinaldo' – Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular | San Juan, Puerto Rico" (in Spanish). 22 September 2019.

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