The Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC) hosts its 5th annual Make Music Winter celebration in the Melrose section of the Bronx with a procession, or parranda—the Puerto Rican tradition of caroling. Based in the music of plena and other holiday songs from the island, this festive parade is led by members of the Bronx music and cultural community. It winds its way through Melrose, stopping at the various casitas in the neighborhood and ending at the casita Rincon Criollo.

This year’s parranda launches from the lobby of Bronx Commons apartments, the soon-to-be permanent home of BMHC. It will feature noted pleneros Jorge Vázquez and Matthew Gonzalez, Grammy-nominated musician Bobby Sanabria and many more special guests.

Make Music Winter, first launched in 2011, is a free, outdoor musical event each December 21st that turns audiences into music makers. Inspired by Phil Kline’s annual Unsilent Night, a boombox parade that has become an international tradition, Make Music Winter transforms New York’s cityscape with participatory musical parades on the winter solstice, running the gamut of musical genres.