You can always count on the fun-loving Mexicans to get the most out of
any fiesta, whether sacred or profane, but they outdo themselves
in making the winter holiday season stretch all the way to February. Though
many of their customs originate in their own past, and others have been
borrowed from Europe and the Far East or, most recently, from their North
American neighbors, they have a way of making each element uniquely their
own. Parties and posadas, parades and pageants, pastorelas,
piñatas and poinsettias all play important roles in the festivities.
December 3rd sees the holidays off to a
solemn start with the fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe which culminates
nine days later on her special day, December 12th. Ever since she appeared
to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac in 1531 and left her image indelibly
imprinted on his mantle, this Virgin has been the patrona of
all Mexico. The natives’ immediate acceptance was partially due
to her dusky skin, so like their own and so unlike the milk-faced dolls
imported from Spain. But what made her peculiarly their own was her appearance
in a place sacred to their old religion near the time of the winter solstice,
plus the fact that she is surrounded by golden rays that identified her
as an emissary of the sun god, the most important deity in the pre-Colombian
pantheon.
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