Humor Me

Humor me to make one more journal entry concerning the Day of the Virgin of Guadelupe.

We have now experienced our first “celebration” and it has left us…tired. All through the night we were kept awake as explosions rang out. It’s the churches way of grabbing everyone’s attention and focusing it on the Virgin. In the afternoon we visited a church and found a carnival atmosphere with the faithful praying, the destitute begging and the vendors selling everything from balloons to baseball caps to food. I ate my first fried grasshopper! It was tasty, a bit crunchy and compares to the taste of anchovies. What a fond memory.

Anyway, most here fully embrace this day and all that it entails. While a few would say Juan Diego and the Virgin of Guadelupe is a carefully crafted story to bring unity between the Roman Catholic Church and the conquered people of Mexico, they feel it was no accident that Mary appeared as a Mexican girl and that Juan Diego was a native Mexican. There is no doubt that this story has been used to forge a unity of sorts.

A sign where the church was built reads, “The land upon which you walk is sacred and also where Mary walked when on this hill she appeared to Juan Diego. Continue walking with attention and a joyful heart until you find the fountain that symbolizes ‘The Offering’ of Mexico to her virgin…two perpetual waterfalls sprout, symbols of the valiant roots of the Aztecs and of the missionary Spain that join at the feet of Mary, mother and forger of the fatherland of Mexico.”

In a related note you may be interested to know the Aztecs had state gods as well as many household gods. One of the principle deities was the mother goddess Tonantzin (“Our Lady”) who was identified with the moon. (Notice that Guadelupe is standing on a crescent moon.) The church is built on the exact spot where the pyramid to Tonantzin once stood. Some believe Guadelupe and Tonantzin are one and the same. You won’t get an argument from me on that one.

While being surrounded by all this, it is our joy that the celebration of the birth of our Savior is at hand. We are encouraged and refreshed by the words of John, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.”