This we
ekend was the vigil to honor San Miguel Arcángel, which lasted from 9 p.m. Saturday night until 6 a.m. Sunday morning. There were supposed to be fireworks at 6 a.m. (this is VERY common) so I went out on the roof terrace to see them, but I finally went back to bed after waiting around for 10 minutes and then I heard them go off at 6:45. I’m still adapting to Mexican Time.
Here’s what the newspaper said about today’s procession: A procession headed by a bull – that will be fattened for feeding the dancers 15 days later – leaves from Las Cuevitas; along with pre-Hispanic dancers, mojigangas (giant puppets) and offerings. The procession goes throughout Canal and arrives to the Parish of Saint Michael the Archangel [this is the parroquia – the big pink church in el Jardin] where the offerings are placed at the Holy Cross. The procession continues through Portal Allende, San Francisco, Nuñez, Puente de Umarán and arrives to Ignacio Ramírez Market [this is where our vegetable lady – Rubina – has her stall], where the vendors place fruit, flowers, and vegetables on the bull’s neck. The procession continues its way through Mesones, Pepe Llanos, Insurgentes [the street parallel from ours – one block over], and ends at the pantheon of San Juan de Dios, where some praises are offered to the dead traditionalists.
This is a pretty long route – it took almost 3 hours from start to finish, but luckily a guy led the procession lighting firecrackers with his cigarette to signal where they were every few minutes. He was followed by la policia…
Next up was the poor sacrificial bull… 🙁
And then a donkey who looked pretty happy that he just had to dress up in paper flowers and would not be fed to the dancers. After the donkey came the offerings and statues of Saint Michael…
Looking back through my photos I’d say there were about 200 dancers. Some of the costumes were AMAZING!!! Each group had one or more drummers…like marching bands in US parades.
Last came the mojigangas, or mojis. If you look closely at some of the photos you can see the face of the person inside (in the general vicinity of the puppet’s “front bum” as Aliya used to say)…
Here’s a video Aliya took of the mojis passing by…
In what seemed like a very bad omen, the bull collapsed near the end of the procession route. The procession had taken about 2 1/2 hours at that point, with many of the dancers continuing to dance the entire way – some in heavy costumes. The bull was given a little water and then hoisted up and led to the shade, so hopefully he’ll be fine…at least until his time is up.
It was a gift to witness this procession, and I know there will be many more to come.