December 12, 2005

By now, Oaxaca's fiestas de diciembre, December festivities, are in full swing. Oaxacans who are devoted to the Virgin of Juquila celebrated her feast day on the 8th at the church of San Juanito not far from the huge Abastos market. One of our friends, her face glowing, told us about her pilgrimages to the town and shrine of Juquila to pray to the Virgin for a boy after her first two children were girls, for a proper wedding, and for a good outcome following a surgery. Happily for her, all three of her prayers were answered.

At any time during December, visitors are likely to cross paths with calendas, exuberant fireworks-punctuated processions of dancers, paper-mache giants, and musicians, sponsored by church groups, businesses, or schools to celebrate the season.

Today, Oaxacans celebrate the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. This is a major celebration across Mexico, since the Virgin of Guadalupe is Mexico's patrona. Early in the morning yesterday, parents flocked to the plaza in front of Oaxaca's Cathedral, bringing their children to be blessed. The girls were dressed in miniature versions of the colorfully embroidered gowns worn by the women of Oaxaca's seven regions.  The boys wore equally typical outfits, and many had tiny moustaches drawn on their faces. The thousand or so children and their parents then formed up into a procession which wound its way through the streets and on up to the Church of Guadalupe, at Llano park. Many families spent the night at the church, celebrating mass at midnight and dawn.

 The hundreds of stands selling food, religious items, CDs, and just about everything else which now fill Llano park will soon pack up and move to Independencia, the avenue leading to the imposing Soledad Basilica. The feast day for the Virgin of Soledad is December 18th.

Her day will be followed on the 23rd by the famous Noche de Rabanos, the Night of the Radishes, and that in turn by Noche Buena, Christmas Eve, when calendas, colorful processions, from churches all over the city congregate in the evening at the zocalo. 

(Left) A priest sprinkles holy water on throngs of parents and children passing by the front doors of the Cathedral

(Right) Masses of noche buena plants appear all over Oaxaca, marking the start of the Christmas season