Verbena and Kermés: The Fiestas Patrias Street-Fair Words You'll See Everywhere

A kermés is a neighborhood fundraiser fair — food stalls, raffle tickets, a sound system, and somebody’s mother running the taco table. A verbena is the same idea said in a more Spanish way, and in Mexico the word is much rarer than travel articles suggest.

If you only learn one of the two, learn kermés. That is the one on the flyer taped to the school gate.

The word is Dutch, and it means church mass

This is the fact worth carrying. Kermés came into Spanish through French kermesse, from Dutch kermis — kerk, church, plus mis, mass.¹ A church mass, which became the fair held on the patron saint’s day, which became a Flemish street party, which became a Mexican school fundraiser.

The Mexican dictionary keeps the shape but drops the church: a popular party, generally held in the street, organized by neighbors or by members of some association.² Neighbors and associations. That is the definition, and it tells you who to expect behind the tables.

Verbena is the interesting contrast. Open the Mexican dictionary and the first sense is a plant — a herbaceous thing about 80 centimetres tall.³ The festival sense exists, but it is not what the word reaches for first here.

How the money actually works

This is the part nobody explains and the part that makes you look lost.

Most kermeses run on tickets, not cash at the stall. You go to one table, hand over money, get a strip of paper tickets, and then spend those at the food stands. It keeps volunteers out of the business of handling change all evening.

• ¿Dónde venden los boletos?
  Where do they sell the tickets?
• ¿Cuántos boletos por un plato?
  How many tickets for a plate?
• ¿La rifa cuándo es?
  When's the raffle?

The stalls, and what to call them

Antojitos deserves a note, because it is not a size label. An antojo is a lively, capricious wish for something, particularly to eat.⁴ So antojitos are not “small snacks” — they are the things you suddenly want. The naming is about appetite, not portion.

Being a good guest at somebody’s fundraiser

The thing to hold onto: a kermés is almost always work. Somebody’s parents have been cooking since six. The word for that is chamba, ordinary popular Spanish for a job or a stint of work,⁵ and you will hear it used about the setting up more than about the party.

You will not find most of them online. They are announced on a printed sheet, in a parish bulletin, or in a WhatsApp group you are not in — which is why being invited to one is a slightly bigger deal than it looks.