This is a double festive season in Mexico. There is all the lead up to Christmas of course, and concurrently, through Dec 12th, all the reverence and celebrations for the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The "miracle of the Virgin of Guadalupe" occurred on Dec 12th, 1531, so every year on December 12, and the few days before, millions of Mexicans complete their long pilgrimages to the Basilica of the Virgin, built at the base of the hill where the miracles are said to have occurred. Many of the pilgrims have traveled long distances, and complete the last few miles on foot or even on their knees.
If you are not familiar with the background story, here is a summary from Wikipedia:
"...Official Catholic accounts state that on the morning of December 9, 1531 Juan Diego saw an apparition of a young girl at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City. Speaking to him in Nahuatl, the girl asked that a church be built at that site in her honor; from her words, Juan Diego recognized the girl as the Virgin Mary. Diego told his story to the Spanish Archbishop of Mexico City, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who instructed him to return to Tepeyac Hill, and ask the "lady" for a miraculous sign to prove her identity. The first sign was the Virgin healing Juan's uncle. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill. Although December was very late in the growing season for flowers to bloom, Juan Diego found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, on the normally barren hilltop. The Virgin arranged these in his peasant cloak or tilma. When Juan Diego opened his cloak before Bishop Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe..."
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| Cloak of Juan Diego |
Juan Diego's cloak is on display and viewed by thousands daily in the new Basilica, next door to the old church. The cloak is now 482 years old, and inexplicably shows only very slight signs of deterioration or fading.
Other cloaks have been made, copies, of similar fabric, and in the Mexico City air, begin to fray and fall apart in about 8 years.
Throughout Mexico there are street parades and festivals in the two weeks leading up to December 12th. Lori LaVelle took these shots of past years' street parades and festivals in Vallarta.
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| Photos by Lori LaVelle |
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