Events & Festivals

Crowds fill the civic basketball court. The dancing stops. Then a hushed silence. Families wait for the elaborate structure of wood and bamboo – the castillo – to burst into life. Suddenly, a crack! A hissing sound, followed by a popping and whizzing. Embers cartwheel onto excited onlookers below.

Ed Fladung has posted a great series of photos taken during the Fiesta De La Virgen De La Paz in Bucerias last week.

Feliz Año Nuevo. Just a couple of days to go now before 6 January, ‘Dia de los Santos Reyes’ (the ‘Day of the Three Kings’), the traditional climax to la temporada navideña in Mexico, which begins on 16 December. So, appropriately enough, we go back to 1586 for the first account of a Nativity play in Mexico, an elaborately staged drama of the arrival of the Three Kings, witnessed in the town of Tlajomulco, south of Guadalajara. Richard Perry is our guide.

Thanks to Tina Manley, who sent me this photo taken on 23 December of folk dancers parading in the streets of Querétaro – the culmination of the Fiestas de Diciembre in the city.

The Christmas event in Oaxaca is the unusual Noche de Rábanos, which takes place on 23 December.

Artisans carve tableaux from giant radishes for kudos and a prize of $12,000 pesos (about £550 or $1,065 US dollars).

Check out the photos on the website of the Oaxaca state tourism office (in Spanish).

In its print version today, The Guardian featured this AP/Mario Armas photo of air balloons in flight during the Third International Air Balloon Festival in Guanajuato.

Parade

Today, Mexicans have been commemorating the 94th anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution.

Tapete – ‘carpet’
Originally uploaded by Greenery

Carpet of sawdust and cut flowers (detail) on a Patamban street.

More photos

Mexico is celebrating the 194th anniversary of its independence from Spain.

Tonight, President Vicente Fox delivers the “grito” – or cry for independence – from the national palace.

But this year’s independence celebrations also mark the 150th anniversary of the Mexican National Anthem, interpreted for the first time on the night of September 15, 1854, during the last government of General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Mexicans had been asked to stop what they were doing at noon today… and sing.

16 September is Independence Day and a national holiday.

Many of the things we regard as ‘typically Mexican’ – such as serenading mariachis, charreadas (rodeos) and tequila – originated in Guadalajara and the state of Jalisco. No better place then, for hosting the International Mariachi and Charrería Festival, now in its 11th year.

The festival takes place from 2-16 September and boasts a busy programme: Catholic masses accompanied by mariachis in Guadalajara cathedral, a desfile (parade) on 4 September featuring floats of mariachi groups and folk ballet artists, mariachi competitions, rodeos and art exhibitions. The full programme (in Spanish) is available on the festival website.

“Pedro Limon has been sinfully busy this year. When he wasn’t at his restaurant manager job, he was jogging or lifting weights. In the wee hours, he studied the Bible and watched religious movies. On weekends, it was church and talks with his priest. And in all these months, he didn’t have a single shot of tequila or a date with a girl. If you want to be Jesus during Easter, expect to make sacrifices.” So writes Jennifer Mena, in an excellent article about the Iztapalapa Passion Play published in the Los Angeles Times a couple of years ago: The Role of a Lifetime [Editor: link no longer available].

The scenario has been a little different in the central Mexican town of Toliman. In the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, the presidente municipal has made the role his own, playing Jesus three years’ running and attracting national and local TV coverage. No matter that he neglected to pay utility bills, prompting the state electricity company to ‘shut-down’ street lighting in Toliman for months on end; putting on a royal purple tunic and a real crown of thorns once a year appears enough to resurrect a political career, at least for another twelve months. More photos.