The Virgin of Guadaloupe

We took the car out again today. Driving is still tense enough that we come home exhausted. We can now get ourselves in and out of Merida fairly well, but we almost always get lost or confused in the smaller villages where there a few, if any, road signs. We probably should stay on the main roads, but keeping to the pavement has never been our strong suit.

The 12th of December is the patron saint day for the Virgin of Guadaloupe, the patron saint of Mexico. This may be more important than Christmas. The roads were full of decorated vans, runners, and bicyclists getting themselves to their churches. I think the whole countryside was on the move in preparation for Wednesday.

These kids had finished their run and were taking a well-deserved break in the shade of the church at Ticul.

Shrines to the Virgin are set up in front of almost every house. Very often there are shrines to Guadaloupe in every home at all times of the year, but at this time they eleborate them in special ways.

An enlargement of above.



The Mexican flag figures importantly in almost all of them.