Monday, April 2, 2007
Easter in Mexico
By Allan Wall
The crucifixion, burial and resurrection
of Jesus Christ are foundational to the Christian faith. That’s why the
major branches of Christendom (Roman Catholic, Protestant, and the Eastern Churches) memorialize — in various ways —
the death, burial and resurrection of Christ each spring.
Mexico has a variety of traditional Easter
customs and religious celebrations, many of them deriving from Spain, with a diversity of traditions linked to particular
regions and cities.
The Easter season begins on Miércoles de Ceniza (Ash Wednesday) and continues through Cuaresma
(Lent), the 40-day period until Semana Santa (Holy Week).
In Mexico there are certain foods associated
with Cuaresma, some of which developed
as a result of Catholic dietary rules. Since red meat was prohibited on certain
days, fish-based dishes became popular Lenten foods. Mexican grocery stores do
a brisk business selling fish during Cuaresma. Ironically, Catholics were forbidden to eat red meat on certain
days as a sacrifice, yet the rules promoted the development of fish-based dishes just as elaborate, if not more so, than the
red-meat based dishes they replaced.
The nopal (also see “Has the Feared Nopal Moth Arrived in Mexico?”) is a popular Mexican Lenten
food, so is the dessert known as capirotada.
Semana
Santa
(Holy Week) begins on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday), the day of Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The Last Supper was held on Jueves Santo (Maundy Thursday).
Viernes Santo (Good Friday) commemorates the day of Christ’s crucifixion. Sábado de Gloria (Holy Saturday) memorializes
the full day Christ was in the tomb. Domingo de Pascua (Easter Sunday) celebrates
the Resurrection of Christ.
On Domingo
de Ramos vendors outside churches sell woven palm leaves, and inside the priest blesses them. On Jueves Santo, Viernes Santo, Sábado de Gloria,
and Domingo de Pascua, there is a special mass each day.
On
Sábado de Gloria, statues of Mary are covered with black dresses because she is considered to be in mourning.
Elementary school, middle school, and high
school students in Mexico get a two-week vacation, the weeks preceding and following Easter Sunday. Most university students
only have the week preceding Easter free. I know my students were quite glad to be getting a vacation!
There are many regional Holy Week customs
in Mexico. For example, Tarahumara Indians, in the mountains of Chihuahua paint
themselves white during Holy Week.
In some cities there is a Procesión de Silencio, a silent procession, wherein the people march down the street by candlelight, in silence.
This custom is from the Spanish city of Sevilla, famous for Semana Santa observances.
Another tradition still popular in southern
Mexico is the “burning of Judas,” practiced on Sábado de Gloria, in
which effigies of Judas (with firecrackers inside!) are burnt. The Judas effigy
is often in the form of a contemporary person, frequently an unpopular politician. It
should be interesting to see who gets burnt in effigy this Sábado de Gloria.
Another custom is the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, a procession in which an actor
portraying Christ bears a cross down a street. In some locales this is part of
a Passion Play, a dramatic representation of the crucifixion of Christ.
The most famous Passion Play in Mexico
is in the Mexico City borough of Ixtapalapa. It has been performed annually since
Ixtapalapa survived a cholera outbreak in 1833.
The Ixtapalapa Passion Play is a true community
endeavor, organized and carried out annually by the locals. It’s sponsored by the secular Iztapalapa government, but
not officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church. The drama includes 4,000 locals as actors, and reportedly draws 2 million
spectators.
All the pageant’s actors must have
been born in Ixtapalapa. Whoever portrays Christ is selected on the basis of
both good moral character and physical strength. The actor wears an actual crown of thorns, is flogged, and bears a 200 pound
cross through the streets before being “crucified” (tied to the cross, not nailed).
The Ixtapalapa Passion Play is truly a
sight to behold. When a reporter asked a local man about it, he replied, "We
pray, we cry, as if all this is real. We know it is not. But yet … maybe we come because we are all sinners. Maybe somehow
it helps us make fewer sins in our lives…. Maybe, just maybe, people are better because of it."
In closing, I wish all my readers a Happy
Easter. In the words of the traditional Mexican greeting: ¡Felices Pascuas de Resurrección!
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Allan Wall, a MexiData.info columnist, recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He currently resides in Mexico, where he has lived since 1991. He can be reached via e-mail at allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
