Dec. 12 is a big day. It's a national holiday in Mexico, with 2 million people packed into a small area....ala Times Square. It is all about the appearance of the Virgen Maria to an Indian peasant on a hill. A brown Virgen.
We watched the Mass broadcast live on the Internet from the Basicilia at midnight, and then Federico went to St. Ana's church, which has an all night vigil so that people can come and adore their Virgencita on her day. At dawn they have mariachis, banda, a reenactment and later food for all. We were there last year, and it was incredibly packed.
The love, the faith, the affection people have for Her is palpable.
I remember being at the Villa (the area of the Basicilia, which includes the original church constructed in her honor, the bigger ugly new one, the hill where she appeared, and a big plaza) 4 years ago. I spent hours wandering around the area, learning, praying, watching....My dream is to return on Dec. 12 to witness the intensity of millions of pilgrims, coming from all over Mexico and the world. See the YouTube clip below to get a flavor.
There is really a whole lot of stuff constructed around the Virgen. Colonizers figured out that they needed to have religious figures that the oppressed majority could identify with and merge with their old deposed Gods and Goddesses. Make Catholicism more palatable. La Virgen is one of those old Goddesses, blended with the new faith. In a world turned upside down, She was (is) also the comfort and consolation of a people smashed by the destruction of their society - kings desposed, books burned, gods defiled, epidemics, enslavement. She provides hope where there was none, and a sign of God's love and compassion when the Church itself was brutal to its Indian converts and those who resisted conversion.
Viva la Virgen.
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