We usually think of weddings and baptisms as rites of passage we attend on separate occasions. But November 27, 2008, marked the celebration of both in San Lorenzo Albarradas: the nuptials of a couple in their early twenties, and the baptism of their three-year-old daughter. What resulted was a melding of highly organized custom characterized […]
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I took one look around the tiny, dingy room I had rented and began questioning my sanity. It was December 2 and I was in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, after a tiring 24-hour bus ride one thousand miles south of the border. During an earlier October visit, I had rented the cheap second-floor room […]
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By an amazing historical coincidence, calendar year 2010 is both a centennial and bicentennial for Mexico. This is great for students, as it’s a mnemonic device to help them remember dates! And as you might well imagine, it leads to 2010 being a great national celebration for Mexico. Every nation needs symbols, traditions and celebrations […]
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It’s easy to enjoy a Cinco de Mayo celebration. Many of the festivities in the U.S. have grown so that now they are generally larger than those in Mexico. Half a million people show up for the annual event in Los Angeles alone. In Mexico, there are parades and parties in places like Puebla and Mexico […]
Continue ReadingHeaping platters of steaming, grilled, fried and roasted pork are set on the table and stacks of hot tortillas, wrapped in thick towels are placed near you. When you can’t walk and you have to roll away from the table, you know you’ve been to a Mexican pig party! I’m not talking about those famous […]
Continue ReadingTiny Tlaxcala may be Mexico’s smallest state but it is one of the most quintessentially Mexican in its traditions, especially in the realm of cuisine. The same artistic flair with which the people of this area painted their ancient temple murals was applied to the creation of their regional dishes. Since pre-Colombian times, Tlaxcaltecos have used a […]
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Celebrations for El Señor de La Conquista (The Lord of the Conquest) completely filled the Jardin Principal of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Hundreds of colourful conchero or “Chichimeca” dancers dressed in pre-Hispanic style outfits arrived from the surrounding towns, representing different styles of dance and dress. Flashes of colour. Hypnotic drum beats. The shake, shake, shake […]
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For Mexico, the Easter holidays are a combination of Semana Santa (Holy Week — Palm Sunday to Easter Saturday) and Pascua (Resurrection Sunday until the following Saturday). For most Mexicans, this 2 week period is the time of year for holiday vacations (good time to not be on the highways — just stay put and […]
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Almost every community of any consequence in Mexico has an annual day or week set aside when a saint or revered person is honored with some type of celebration. If, for example, a town’s name honors San Patricio or San José or San Francisco, then on those Saint’s Days there will usually be fireworks, parades, […]
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The yearly “Fiestas de Santiago” was going full tilt. And I truly mean tilt, because at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, I noticed quite a few local residents in a very happy mood due to the consumption of copious quantities of alcohol, another tradition. This party is held for a week every July in the […]
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