Yesterday was the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe or Our Lady of Guadalupe, or La Virgin Moreno (the dark skinned virgin.) She is the most important religious icon in Mexico.
This is what I learned in my culture class (with a little help from Wikapedia):
In the 16th century the Spaniards were struggling to convert the indigenous people to catholicism. Luckily a Nahuatl fellow, Juan Diego, who was one of the first converts, and very devout, met the Virgin Mary on a hill outside of what is now Mexico City. She told him to tell the church to build a temple to her on that spot. When he told the bishop, the bishop didn’t believe him and said he would need a sign. Juan went back and Mary told him to pick flowers to show the bishop. It was December so flowers were out of season, but when he went up the hill there were Spanish roses blooming. Mary placed a bunch of roses into Jaun’s poncho type thing called a tilma. He took them down to show the bishop. As the roses fell out of his tilma, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on the cloth.
What makes her special and what seemed to win over a lot of people is that she is dark skinned, she is pregnant and there are many other symbols in the image that match the indigenous religions of that time.
This was supposed to have happened over the days of December 9th to the 12th. The 12th being the day the image appeared. Therefore the 12th is super important. Everyone goes to the temple of Guadalupe, (I believe most towns have one,) to give an offering. Many women and children dress in traditional indigenous outfits, I’m not sure why men don’t. The little boys get mustaches and sideburns painted on them so they will look like Juan - though, I don’t think indigenous people had facial hair… hmmm. Well that’s what people do anyway.
We walked up the road to the temple with a whole passle of kids and the rest of the town. My mother and stepfather just got here, so they got to experience the whole thing too. Of course the way up was full of vendors, selling all the delicious food, cheap plastic toys, tee shirts and baskets of fruits and vegetables for the offerings.
All along the way there were these beautiful backdrops set up so that people could get their pictures taken with the virgin.
We didn’t make into the temple. The crowd action was just too… crowded. And by that time the baby had fallen asleep in my arms, which was amazing considering the crush of people I was making my way through.
So we found ourselves a place to sit in the shade, past the crowds, then headed back down to town on a different route.
And my camera ran out of battery.
