Cohetes this morning

[Plumeau1]

Would someone know what these early cohetes are about this morning ?

are we celebrating something and no one told us about it ?!?!?

my dog is wondering and me too !

[Bisbee Gal]

Gearing up for the month long celebration of the Virgin of the Rosary.  

From Ajijic News site: http://ajijicnews.com/pages/eventscalendar

Quote

 

In Ajijic, the entire month of October is devoted to the Virgin of the Rosary, whose statue resides the rest of the year in the small chapel on the Plaza. A small pre-procession will occur on Sept. 30 from the Guadalupe Church to the San Andres church in the late afternoon. Special Masses, which include the saying of the Rosary, will be held every evening throughout the month. Afterwards, there are usually a few more cohetes to propel the prayers of the people to God.

On weekends during October, you might hear early morning sky-rockets and/or bandas or mariachis as they proceed from various points in town to the church for the early morning Mass. The whole point of having cohetes, bandas, and processions including singers in the pre-dawn hours is to wake up the people for the morning Mass, not that everyone goes every day.

While some northerners are put off by all the early morning "noise" it is important to remember that these are long-held and deep traditions emanating from the time before there were alarm clocks, all the way back to the pre-hispanic times. Most of the good people of the village are up at that hour anyway, as half of the kids go to the early shift at their schools. These are not holidays. Life goes on, people go to work and school as usual, and so the gringos can kindly curtail their complaining.

October 31 is the last day of the month-long celebration, so there will be an large evening fiesta beginning with a procession including floats, Danzantes, bandas, and the carrying of La Virgen, herself, through the town. It starts around 5pm behind the church on Calle Galeana, and then heads east on Guadalupe Victoria, down Calle Aldama, west down Constitucion and Ocampo to Seis Esquinas (6 Corners) and back to the San Andres church to a welcome of the exuberant and rousing pealing of bells, brass bandas playing as several groups of Danzantes Aztecas with their drummers, heralded by the blowing of conch shells, and La Virgen, enter the church Atrium just before the twilight outdoor Mass as the sun sets - a truly dynamic and moving spectacular of jubilant and cacophonous sound healing.

After the Mass, people will gather in the Plaza when La Virgen will ceremoniously be carried back to her home in the Chapel, where she will be serenaded by Mariachis, and honored by more Danzantes outside. Later, there will be a Banda playing for dancing and enjoyment, and around 10:30 or 11pm, there will be a Castillo lit up in front of the Chapel on the Plaza - a preview of the San Andres fiesta in November which will have such events for 9 days straight, an awesome amount of fun.

 

 

[Plumeau1]

Thank you very much for your reply

always good to know Los costumbres locales...

[gringal]

The cohetes are also going off in Centro Ajijic.  Welcome to Mexico!

[El Bizco]

Personally the cohetes do not bother me. However, the above assertion that cohete usage "goes all the way back to pre-hispanic times" cannot be true. Gun powder did not exist in the Americas until the Spanish brought it here, and throughout the colonial period the Spanish did not allow the indigenous to have it.

[Arroyos]

Could also be related to Chapala's annual fiesta in honour of Saint Francis.  

[tomgates]

Would like to see their permit per the new noise law.

[Bernard Goodman]

I've found with earplugs that  I could sleep thru an atomic explosion but this tradition is one that I would enjoy being awake to see .  Don't take Mexican heritage as a personal affront because these traditions were happening long before you arrived and will continue long after you are gone. Complaining about the noise in the early morning will only antagonize the locals and make you look like an arrogant whiner, not to mention in the long run will turn local Mexican residents against the ex-pats.

[gringal]

1 hour ago, tomgates said:

Would like to see their permit per the new noise law.

SERIOUSLY????😄

[HarryB]

municipalities had 180 to pass an ordinance. Can they do that in the dark?

 

[exyyz]

Chapala is celebrating St. Francis of Assisi for 9 days.

[Mainecoons]

Plumeau you can expect fireworks at varying levels most of the next 40 days or so.  Construction guys are going to have lots of money for them, construction and rehab is booming here.

 

[bournemouth]

I hear that the weekend cohetes were for a saint that the barrio letting them off has not celebrated before - nothing to do with the Virgin of the Rosario, who was celebrated pretty quietly this morning.  I only heard 3 cohetes this morning on the first day of her month.

[bmh]

The cohetes go back to the Spaniards who also use them for festivals.

[cookj5]

As someone said, a while back, "if  you can't stand  noise, find another country."

[ComputerGuy]

Here we are, having a friendly discussion once more on an old topic, with some good history thrown in, and here's cookj5 taking a pot-shot at somebody. Who? And why? That's call trolling, and none of us should put up with it.