Praise the Lord! The Virgin Mary Hath Finally Ascended!

Yesterday, August 15th, was what I hope to be the final day of The Celebration of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary MADNESS that occurs here every year from mid July until mid August.  San Sebastian church, two blocks west, sets up a fair on their grounds and in the street for a month.  The rides look like they were found at the dump and reassembled...they're for little kids but they're too scary for me!  That's just one of the events though, and the least distracting of them all.

In July the people start attending more Masses, and having private BOMBINGS at their own homes...and the Masses and BOTTLE ROCKET madness increase as we near August 15th.  In July when it starts, it gives me the feeling of living in a war zone.  This year, the first day I heard the fireworks (using the term loosely), I was sitting at the dining room table in the house we were caring for, writing.  All of a sudden it sounded like there was a sniper in the neighborhood. The cats looked at me in wonder. I heard what sounded like gunshots roving around the block.  I figured I was safe in the compound, but it took me a while to figure out that the celebration, city wide, had begun. I was only a few blocks from the main square, and they have REALLY BIG bottle rockets at the main Cathedral!

The Virgin Mary is the patron saint of Mexico.  They embrace her in all of her forms.  Our Lady of Guadalupe is so important, everyone is expected to have at least a small shrine to her outside their homes......I have seen people turn their garages into chapels for her.  This is serious business around here.

The difference is that these people are Mayan before they are Catholic.  They took on the aspects of Catholicism that work for them, like the sinning during the week and confessing it all on Saturday, ready to look good in Church on Sunday!  But they saved the Mayan customs of blowing off fireworks, home made bottle rockets...and it seems this year they discovered cherry bombs........and for four weeks it sounds like we live in an active war zone. Last week, during the big build up to the finale, they started the fireworks at 5am if I am not mistaken, and blew them proudly every hour until midnight. This happened every day through yesterday..with just a few leftovers this morning.  I've been picking up burnt bottle rockets off the ground and the roof, but so far not off the solar panels.  I'm not worried, there is another important day, Guadalupe day I think, in December that causes this entire month long syndrome to occur again. So there's still time to F up my solar panels...after 16 blogs about parades, I am ready to concede...NOT EVERYONE LOVES A PARADE.

On the bright side, these religious bottle rocket bombs are the only such nuisance we have in Mérida.  We are NOT in the middle of a giant narcotraficante drug war and our streets are safe.

Fireworks for the Virgin

It's Virgin time again! The neighborhood churches are celebrating the Feast of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary. They start late in July with a carnival at San Sebastian Church, two blocks west of my house. Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and a few amusement park rides are lit up and filled with folks at night. People fill the park, eat, play games, and hang out through mid-August. I think the church services require the exploding of bottle rockets all day and night. It seems like there is less action this year compared to my first two years in the neighborhood, but that just might be because I haven't bothered to walk up there!

Today was the first procession I noticed in the street. The explosions sounded like bombs going off outside the front gate. When I went to look, I saw this:

This was not the most enthusiastic procession I have seen, but it's 103°F outside and walking on hot asphalt in the city is brutal. The ladies were dressed in huipiles and I captured a few beautiful smiles.

There were many banners like these, and I have no idea what they signify.

The parade even had a marching band!

The patron saint of San Sebastian church and of all Mexico is the Virgin Mary. So although other churches may have their own patron saint, they all still celebrate every one of Mary's feast days. That means the fireworks also go off at La Ermita Church, one block south of here, all day and night for weeks leading up to the big day. The processions may head to a cathedral nearly 25 blocks from here, or maybe they just walk from San Sebastian to La Ermita. I guess I should either research this (I'll put it on my list!) or just follow them one day to see if I can get a grip on this odd mixture of religion, cultures and traditions. It is a pleasure to see them maintain these customs and walk forward proudly with their beliefs.

Carnaval: Mardi Gras

Princess Mardi Gras right here!

I know, I know, enough Carnaval already! But in my own defense, this was a cultural study that I undertook. What I learned was that the best parades to attend are the first one (Friday) and the Regional night (Monday). There are plenty of people around but they give you a little room to breathe. Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday's parades are much more crowded and the atmosphere (for me) is not as festive. There are too many people and they get really fucked up, making others grumpy and pissing off security. On Tuesday a drunken guy dressed in drag fell off the curb and on to Pablo.



We were able to get seats, but the box seats for the big finale were sold out by January. Or last year, depending on who you talk to. We sat in the street at the intersection of Calles 60 and 53.



This is a watermelon vendor going through a ritual health inspection. Ok, so we ate watermelon on Sunday, not Tuesday, but see how inviting it is? I finally got a good photo.



I learned why I write these blogs. It is all for me! I knew the blog coverage was getting excessive but I had a great time with it. Plus I was determined to follow it through. Even if I bored the shit out of some readers my ultimate hope is that you found something in all this that made you smile.


I was amazed to read in the Diário del Yucatán that 700,000 people attended Tuesday's parade. There are one million people living in Mérida and its immediate surroundings, so let's say 100,000 were working, e.g., emergency personnel. That would leave 200,000 people. I am convinced most of them were participating IN the parade!



We left the house at 8:30am to try to procure seats. We hadn't been able to arrange seating in advance, so early arrival was our only hope. We opted for the Santa Lucia Park area again and luckily for us they were still selling single seats at closed intersections....with chairs, without shade. It was hot, sunny, and really hot and sunny.



This is how I got some shade, not to mention almost having my eye poked!


For breakfast at around 10am we bought some kibis and piedras from street vendors. Kibis are Lebanese deep fried bullets made of crushed garbanzo beans. (There is a huge Lebanese population in Mérida.) The kibis remind me a little of hush puppies. The inside is hollow and the vendor fills them with "repollo", chopped cabbage and habanero chiles. Kibis are a bit dry for my taste.


We also tried piedras, or "rocks". They are little balls of masa (the corn dough you make tortillas with) stuffed and deep fried. Some had hamburger and seasonings in them, others had black beans and chicken. These also come with repollo. Those went very well with the beers I had for breakfast when the concessions opened at 11am.








With beer in hand, I bought some fresh roasted peanuts around noon. I swear they were the freshest, crispiest, tastiest peanuts I have ever tasted. They made the warm 2nd beer go down much more smoothly. The parade began at noon on Paseo de Montejo and reached us by 1:20pm. It was over in an hour and a half. The parade finished at San Juan Park around 3:30pm.


The participants were noticeably tired when they reached us, not only from the heat of the day, but from days and days of marching miles and miles. I was tired of watching parades so many days in a row, so I can only imagine how the marchers were. Some of those costumes were heavy and they all looked hot.......except for the scantily clad ladies of course, who didn't have to walk anywhere, as they just stood on the floats tossing loot and looking good. (Or not.)









The ACTUAL last event, the burning of Juan Carnaval until next year, we skipped. That took place on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. All of a sudden I was over Carnaval and ready to go to the beach and eat fish!

Mardi Gras Loot: Days 4 & 5

Monday night we scored, most likely because we had our own box of seats and were more noticeable. There was more drumming on Monday than on "batachá" day, or so it seemed, and Pablo drew added attention as he played his tambor along with each musical group that passed us.

A little Mayan boy handed me this sweet roll, freshly baked and out out of the basket he was carrying; all spiffed up in his white hat, shirt and pants. I gave it to the kids in the seats next to us because it wouldn't really go with my beer.



Later we caught a tshirt, 2 hats, a frisbee, lots of bead necklaces, candies, cookies, crackers, pencils, pens, a scarf, and a lighter.



Last year we caught a green scarf with the year's logo from Corona Beer and I now have a good starter collection of Carnaval memorabilia.



The cats particularly liked the necklaces that lit up. I really like this black hat. It has the Corona logo on one side.



I forgot to mention the glow stick glasses: they looked pretty bizarre outside at night. And if you notice this shirt was also donated by the handicapped. I like it. I took a photo of this character in the parade. But I won't search for it and post it here, I promise.


Tuesday we grabbed a few good items, but there were more people in attendance. Plus the guy in front of me, probably pissed that he got wet when a clown dowsed me (and him) with water, caught all the stuff that was thrown my way. As you can see I did get the Coke cup that he used to cool me off! Pablo found me a better crown for the final day, which will be good to start next year off right.....tons of beads and a tiara.



Tuesday's event is also called the Parade of the Flowers and they hand out fresh carnations. I was handed or thrown at least six, but only three made it home in tact. It was wild on Tuesday.

Carnaval: The Regional Yucatecan Parade

By the fourth parade I was able to get a decent shot of the Mask float. It was one of the best and I found myself looking for it every day.

Yucatecan night is my favorite of all the parades! First of all, we saw the action from a new location, in the centro on 60th Street. The street is narrrow compared to Paseo de Montejo where they use the lanes heading south for the parade and lanes heading north for the food and beer vendors. In the centro they utilize every centimeter of space. Both sides of the street are blocked off and temporary box seats constructed all along the route. The vendors push their carts down the street for hours before parade time, but you have to walk a few blocks for the beer. Pablo bought us our own box of eight seats. We considered selling the unused seats, but decided to splurge (at 28 pesos per seat) and enjoy the elbow room. Pablo played his tambor with passing musicians, while I took lots of photos and sucked up a couple of large beers.

This event brought out more participants from outlying areas, and the parade lasted more than two hours. The mood was upbeat, the music and dancing quite lively, and there were so many beautiful smiles. The costumes were a bizarre mix of old style Mayan-Yucatecans and the cartoon/movie characters as evidenced by the photo above.

Horse carriages are one of many typical modes of transportation in the Yucatán. I think they add a special charm to the procession of parade royalty. Having horse carriages here is so common even I have a horse trough in my patio area.

All eight of these seats are ours! What a luxury after being crammed in curbside along Paseo de Montejo. It was a completely different scene on 60th Street.

Several photos of the typical Yucatecan dress and smiles.

The parade on Regional night is not just all T&A!

Could you guess these are Mayan women? All around the Maypole.....they love to pole dance!

There were many groups like this. Great for people watching and obsessed photographers!

Then there was this kind of Mayan "woman".....he's not too bad looking if you like this sort of thing. The kids in the box next to us asked him if he was a man or woman, and he told them he was a woman. They were confused. They were quite young.

I know I have no business posting my shitty videos, but I love them! This one really reminds me of my childhood.....or my wedding......seems to me you could polka to this music and the dance is pretty close to what we learned in our neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio!

Carnaval: Batachá Parade - Part 3

Below are some additional photo highlights from Sunday's daytime parade. Since I posted the crowd gathering process and my favorite photos already, I'll spare you the rambling. There are more parades to report on!

Mardi Gras Loot: Day 3

If you read the previous posts, you know we did not catch any loot on Saturday because we couldn't watch the parade. Here is Sunday's pile.

Carnaval: Batachá Parade - Part 2

I asked Pablo what "Bachata" meant because it is not in the dictionary. He told me that it is actually Batachá (pronounced bah-tah-CHA) as in the sounding out of a drum beat, and that is what it represents: lots of drums. As you can see above, Pablo took his tambor along. He jammed with several of the drummers parading by. These are our seats for Sunday's event. Later we have chairs in the exact spot Pablo is seated in front of the beer concession that had seats available. This photo was taken at 9am, and the beer sales start at 11am.



At 9am folks are lining the streets and all the bleacher seats are taken. They may not look full but the empty seats are being carefully guarded by those currently occupying space.

By 10am people were arriving in droves. Families pulling large coolers, carrying chairs, loads of food and huge jars of chiles sought out those elusive empty spaces where they could set up camp for the day.

At 11am the concessions opened and all the seats on the tree-lined side of the street were also filled. We were comfortable as Pablo batachá'd his drum and I wrote on whatever bits of paper I could find in my empty purse. (I was ready to reach out for loot by Sunday!) We enjoyed some mouth-watering watermelon served with chile and lime juice. The watermelon man and his cart of fresh carved fruit was irresistible.

It is nearly 12 noon and people are now arriving in herds. I have no idea where these people will fit themselves in, but most of them will squeeze in somewhere. Some will likely end up behind those bleachers and have to sacrifice the parade to the beer gods.

Just before start time people have to be in their seats or make their way out of the parade route. The walls of policemen make sure this happens and in a timely fashion. These folks, if not just up stretching from having sat on benches or curbs for three hours are completely SOL (shit out of luck) if they think they are going to see this parade around here!

Carnaval: The Children's Parade

Although we did not, my neighbor Theresa DID attend the Children's Parade on Thursday, February 19th, and you can read about it and see the photos on her blog: http://theresainmerida.blogspot.com/

And while you are on her blog page, read about the bloggers' gathering she is planning for mid-April here in Mérida. It should be an interesting few days. Quite a few of the Yucatecan bloggers, and some from farther away in the republic, plan to attend. Come join us.

Well, let's not waste good blogging space. Here is another video from Sunday's parade. The quality is no better than the one on the last post, but I am amused to be able to capture any live action.

Carnaval: The Bachata Parade - Part 1

Sunday morning we left the house at 8:15am for the Noon Parade. We found parking before we even got to Mike's house, leaving us only 3 blocks to walk. The bleachers were already full, but we were able to find a beer concession that had not pre-sold all their seats and for 35 pesos each we got front row chairs, AT the beer stand, UNDER a big shade tree. The five year old was happy. Below are my favorite photos from the day's events. I added one video for some live action. It is not a good quality video, as I am only using the movie feature of my Olympus digital photo camera, but with a little imagination it will take you to the Paseo de Montejo on parade day.