Feast of the Candles

The bus that we were on which was going from where we live, Churintzio, Michoacan, to the mid-sized city of La Piedad, approximately 20 miles away, was atypically full whereas normally it would only have had a few riders. When my wife, Maria, asked some women sitting behind us if they knew why so many people were on the bus they replied that, like themselves, most of them had found the little figurine of the baby Jesus in their Rosca de Reyes/traditional sweet bread as they broke bread together with family and friends on Three Kings Day on January 6 and were going to La Piedad to purchase supplies in preparation for the fiesta in their homes that by tradition they were obligated to host the following day. Then, the next day, while birdwatching on a trail near our home, I saw a teenaged boy pushing a two wheeler full of branches and limbs that he had obviously gotten for that night’s festivities.

What that boy and most of the people on the bus were preparing for was the Dia de la Candelaria which takes place on the 2nd of February. One of the 12 Great Feasts of the Catholic church year, it is known by many other names including the Feast of the Candles, Feast of the Purification, Candlemas, Purification of the Blessed Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord. It commemorates the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of Christ in the temple which occurred, as mandated by Jewish law, 40 days after Jesus' birth.

Whether one believes it is by coincidence or it is by providence, February 2 which is also Groundhog Day in the US and Canada, per astronomical calculation is the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. As such, the Dia de la Candelaria has come to symbolize the time to prepare the earth for spring planting. Moreover, it officially signals the end of Mexico’s long Christmas season beginning with the nine posadas that start on December 16, Christmas Eve and Day, and Three Kings Day having preceeded it.

This religious and social event is celebrated throughout Mexico. In some communities such as Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in the Southern Gulf of Mexico region of the country, it is a major fiesta with mariachi performances, parades, dances, and bullfights; in its church both the worshippers’ candles and their seeds for the soon to be planted crops are blessed-in keeping with many other Mexican religious celebrations, it represents a blending of pre-Hispanic/indigenous traditions and Catholic ritual. Another community that celebrates Candlemas with an extravagant fiesta is Acapulco, Guerrero in the South Pacific region where there is a parade in the afternoon down its main boulevard which features carnival floats, costumed dancers, and marching bands; in the evening over Acapulco Bay there are fireworks.

Churintzio, a semi-rural town and municipality situated in the Central Pacific region, is very representative of how Candelaria is traditionally celebrated in small towns and villages in that region of the country. In the early evening a procession by the faithful is followed by a special mass in the church sanctuary. At that mass, the celebrants' candles, by tradition preferably made from beeswax, are blessed by the priest for use during religious occasions throughout the year. Just as importantly, the baby Jesus figurines, Ninos Dios, that are part of a family's household nativity scenes and that receive gifts from the Magi on January 6, Three Kings Day, are dressed in fine clothes (oftentimes in a white robe and crocheted bonnet) and are presented in the church to be blessed. Moreover, traditionally, neighborhood friends of the family who are the compadres/godparents of the figurine are responsible for the preparations for and the hosting of El Levantamiento/"the Raising of Jesus" which is a special event which occurs shortly after Christmas in which they have a fiesta celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus.

The mass is followed by two types of fiestas throughout the town. At the first, families, on the sidewalks or the streets by their homes have blazing bonfires made from wood or more traditionally from tabardillo, dried brush. As family and friends stroll around town (going from one bonfire party to the next) and come to socialize with them, they are presented with the following: in cups, pinole, ground corn made with sugar and cinnamon; ponteduro, toasted unground corn formed into small balls made with pinole and a sweet syrup made from piloncillo/Mexican brown sugar; and calabaza, squash simmered in a sweetened syrup.

Hosted inside and outside of their homes by the (depending on their attitude regarding the cost, time, and effort required) fortunate or not so fortunate finders of the baby Jesus figurine that was embedded in the Rosca de Reyes is the other kind of party. Typically, a doll or other representation of the baby Jesus will be presented to and kissed by the partygoers. Then the guests will be served, once again following Christmas tradition, tamales and atole, a hot masa-based drink. All of these parties may go on until the early morning hours.

Five years ago, shortly after we had relocated to Churintzio, Maria, her father, and myself attended a Calendaria fiesta at the home of a distant relative of hers. Not really able to speak Spanish, while the other men all of whom were sitting outside of the house talked with each other and the women, all inside of the house, conversed among themselves, left alone for three hours to my own devices, I observed what was going on at this party and also watched the goings on at the bonfire fiestas along the street. From an outsider’s and observer’s perspective, up to that point I found all of the goings on that evening to be pretty interesting and illuminating, literally and figuratively.

However, when my wife’s male 2nd cousin (who as it turned out should have been minimally a million times "removed"!) abruptly got up from his chair and went into his house and returned with a pistol and a few times shot at (and missed, thank goodness!) an opossum that was walking on his neighbor’s fence across the street, I just as abruptly decided that it was time to say "adios," then and forever. That inhumane, boorish, and showing off macho behavior of his certainly had no place at that night’s symbolic, traditional, religious, and social celebrations (or transcending cultural awareness and sensitivity, not at any other time either!).