Semana Santa
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San
Miguel must have the most festivals and processions to mark Semana Santa (Holy
Week of any other town in Mexico. We scheduled our stay this year to take in as
many of the Holy Week events as possible. The week before Easter started with
sorrows and built up to a big bang on Easter Sunday.
Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, Our Lady of Sorrows, is
relatively unknown in much of Mexico but is one of the highlights of Holy Week
in San Miguel. All over town, San Miguel de Allende’s families and business
owners have constructed altars dedicated to the sadness of the Virgin Mary for
the loss of her son. For one night private homes and entrances to businesses are
opened to the public to display elaborate altars, decorated with flowers,
candles, bitter oranges and small pots of sprouting wheat. Our local newspaper,
Atencion, lists most of the best places to visit on the Night of the Altars when
all the candles are lt and visitors are treated to a fruit juice, a
frozen Popsicle or other treats.
We had started our evening with a guitar concert at the
Biblioteca. The concert ended just in time for us to make the rounds of the
Altars. The street next to the Biblioteca had been closed to traffic so that
everyone could safely see a huge altar built in the middle of the street. We
were attracted by loud music just a block away. A big dance area had been roped
off in front of the Temple of the Oratorio and crowds of people were surrounding
costumed dancers were putting on quite a show. Clowns handed out candies to the
children and nearby booths provided free fruit juice. That was just the start.
We snacked our way around to see several altars in private homes. In one we
accepted a glass of pineapple juice, and in another house with an elaborate
altar we ate a small cup of tasty rice pudding.
Back in the Jardin area there was a concert was in
progress in the Temple of San Rafael, next to the Parroquia. Candles on the
floor led to an elaborate gold altar in front of which sat a small string
orchestra, accompanying two excellent sopranos with a program of sacred music.
After a short intermission we were treated to a second concert with a pianist
and a baritone. There were still several more altars to visit on our way back to
our apartment and more snacks to eat. This was an event not to be missed.
Two
days later was Palm Sunday with two processions, one right after the other, to
see. The first procession, led by clergy and altar boys and girls, walked from
Santo Domingo Church down a hill to the Temple of San Francisco. Parishioners,
including several people dressed as pilgrims and a man dressed as Jesus riding a
donkey, filled the street while we Gringos snapped photos.
Once the group were safely in the church to celebrate a
mass, we hurried to see the second, larger procession, due to start shortly. Ray
and I went down Sollano Street, where the procession would make its way from
Juarez Park to the Parroquia. The doors and windows of many of the houses on the
street were decorated with flowers, the ground was strewn with sweet smelling
herbs and archways covered with palm fronds and flowers reached from one side of
the street to the other.
Finally
the procession started up the street with each group of parishioners carrying
palm decorations woven in elaborate patterns and a large statue of Jesus riding
a donkey and another Sorrowing Mary. I followed beside the faithful as long as I
could but finally broke off into a side street to take an alternate route to the
Parroquia where I got a good vantage point to see the procession make their way
into the church for a mass. That was enough for one day.
There
were other processions during the week in neighbouring towns, re-enacting the
events before Good Friday. We decided to limit our viewing to the next weekend.
That was a good decision. We were awakened early on Good Friday with the booms
of multiple firecrackers. Later in the morning the neighbouring homes were
decorated and the street in front of our apartment was covered with sweet
smelling herbs in anticipation of a small procession from nearby San Juan de
Dios Church through the streets and up to the Parroquia. Angelitos,little girls
in white dresses and angel wings, led the procession, strewing chamomile onto
the pavement. Little boys with painted mustaches and shepherds cloaks came
behind. Parishioners carrying a statue of a bowed and bloody Christ followed as
did the statue of Sorrowing Mary and Saint John, the patron saint of the Parish
of San Juan de Dios.
That was just the first of three processions that day. Noon brought the crowds
to the Jardin and the area in front of the Temple of San Rafael, next to
the Parroquia. There was an enactment of Jesus, betrayed by Judas, being given a
death sentence by Pontious Pilate and being led away by Roman guards. Once found
guilty, the procession, led by a large choir, emerges from the church and winds
around the Jardin, ending at another Church, the Oratorio, a few blocks away.
The two thieves, destined to be crucified next to Jesus, are led by Roman
soldiers brandishing whips, adding to the bloody sores painted on their torsos.
Several pilgrims, dressed in blue sack cloth and wearing crowns of nails, follow
behind. Then the statues appear, San Roque with an ulcerated leg and accompanied
by his faithful dog, Mary Magdalene, Saint John the Baptist, a Judas,Saint
Veronica with the image of Christ on a cloth, several other saints, the
sorrowing Mother Mary and Christ carrying a Cross. The faithful, who have been
in the Temple of San Rafael, follow behind. It is a huge procession.
After
a lunch at a restaurant with are friends, we are ready to take on the most
solemn procession, enacting the death of Jesus. The circular route starts about
5 PM and ends after dark back at the Oratorio. Streets leading to the Oratorio
and around the Jardin are closed off to allow the hundreds of spectators room to
observe the spectacle. Clowns walk around making balloon animals to keep the
children amused before the procession arrives. Finally, the first group of
parishioners arrived, all dressed in funereal black, the women with black
Spanish Mantillas on their heads. All the statues from the noon procession, and
then more, were there. The parade moved slowly, stopping frequently for prayers.
Shortly before Christ arrived in his bier, a man and a woman, standing on a
balcony across from the Jardin. Organ music played from inside the room and the
two singers burst into song. It was an added extra to the procession. We didn’t
accompany the faithful back to the Oratorio. We had seen more than enough for
one day.
The day everyone was waiting for came on Easter Sunday.
The traditional name is the Burning of Judas, but the ritual has evolved into
more of a political statement, focusing on Politicians currently out of favour
with the populace. We arrived, along with a good portion of San Miguel citizens
and tourists, to find Calle de Canal in front of the Jardin lined with about 25
Papier Mache figures, sponsored by various companies and restaurants in San
Miguel, leaning against the Old City Hall building. I didn’t recognize a Judas
figure, but there were two devils, a witch, two Donald Ducks with orange hair
and bright, blue suits, and a figure that was more recognizable as The Donald
himself, who is not a friend of Mexicans or the mostly liberal tourists.
The figures were strung by a loop on the head to ropes extending from trees in
the Jardin to balconies on the building across Calle de Canal. The spectators
were kept back at a safe distance from underneath the figures and the fun began.
Event officials lowered one figure and lit a fuse attached to a bamboo belt
around the waist of the figure, and raised the figure above the street. The fuse
lit a firecracker that caused the figure to slowly twirl until the fuse lit the
second firecracker and finally reached a third firecracker. A few seconds later
the figure to explode with a loud boom. There was clapping by adults and fear in
the eyes of young children. One by one the figures were exploded. The cheering
got loader while the audience waited for The Donald to take his turn. A chant of
“Trump, Trump, Trump” spread within the crowd. Finally it was The Donald’s turn.
The fuse was lit, The Donald twirled, once, twice and a third time before
exploding with a gigantic boom. The crowd let out the loudest cheer yet and
high-fived the performance. Even if this was only a symbolic victory, the crowd
had made its point. The Donald was not winning any votes in San Miguel de
Allende. The fun was all over except for the rush for souvenir body parts on the
street below the now exploded figures. The children especially had a grand time
claiming a leg or arm to take home. It may be a prized possession until next
year.
And so ended the official Holy Week. We were glad we had been able
to be here to see all the festivities. It was unlike anything we had ever seen
before.
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