Men stand bundled against the cold in the pre-dawn glow. Knives are sharpened and the fire fed in preparation for the day’s work – a matanza. It’s a step back to when cold weather signaled the time to butcher the meat that would feed your family for the winter and when the help of family and friends was essential to the community.

Typically on the Saturday after Thanksgiving the Lopez families hold their matanza, alternating the site each year between the Tome, N.M., homes of brothers Henry and his wife Olivia and Al and his wife Kellie. Friends and family, numbering 100 and more, come to share in the custom of butchering a hog and feasting on the traditional New Mexican foods that surround the event.

“We do it to share of our blessings with family and friends,” Olivia says of the day-long gathering they’ve held for the past 17 years. “And to put meat away in the freezer.”

Henry and Al carry on the folk tradition brought 400 years ago to New Mexico from Spain. What they’ve learned from their parents they pass on to their own children, between the two of them training 13 more pairs of Lopez hands to share in the work.

Friends who don’t mind looking their lunch in the eye come early. After the hog is shot and the sangria poured, the workers cover the carcass in burlap and boiling water from a barrel over the fire. They put their hunting knives to work scraping off the hog’s bristles and cutting up meat. The early risers are rewarded with a taste of the heart, liver and kidneys chopped immediately, grilled with onions, and folded into a tortilla – the first fruits of the matanza.

Strips of fat and meat are diced and put into an iron pot, which guests take turns stirring with a wooden paddle to make chicharrones. Others pour red chile over cubes of meat on a flat grill for the carne adovada that will feed the guests who arrive later with their side dishes and desserts. The rest of the hog is taken to a meat packer for further butchering and packaging and will feed the family into the next year.

Experience a taste of the tradition at the Valencia County Hispano Chamber of Commerce’s 10^th Annual Matanza on Jan. 30, 2010, at the Valencia County Fairgrounds in Belen. The chamber invites more than 25 teams of matanza cooks – often including the Lopez crew – to compete for honors and feed the 10,000 who attend. Cost of the all-you-can-eat event is $10 per person for everyone over age 5. Gates are open from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.