Tag Archives: Easter

Carnival in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico

Carnival is a Catholic festival traditionally celebrated before Lent, six weeks before Easter.  In Mexico it combines masquerade, dancing, music and mucho mezcal and is usually a two-day event that goes long into the night.

Here in Teotitlan del Valle, the rug weaving village located about 15 miles outside of Oaxaca city in the Tlacolula valley, Carnival begins the Monday after Easter and continues for five days.  The Teotitecos believe the time to let loose is after Easter Sunday.  Each of the five districts in the pueblo will host a daily festival that begins around 3 p.m. Oaxaca time.  If you come, look for the big red and blue striped fiesta tent that will cover the patio of the host home.

 

Oaxaca Photography Workshops offer cultural immersion, too.

We were told the festivities start in the municipal plaza at 5:00 p.m. Teotitlan time.  This can be very confusing since Oaxaca city goes on daylight savings time but in Teotitlan time never changes.  So, Oaxaca time is one hour later than Teotitlan time.  I have found it is important to clarify an appointment hour by asking: Oaxaca time or Teotitlan time?  Otherwise, you run the risk of being too early or too late.  The ancient Zapotecs believed that whomever controlled time controlled the world.  They adopted this from the Mayan concept of time. They were right!

 

My friend Merry Foss and I arrived in the plaza at 5:15 p.m. to find it empty.  The benefit was that we got a prime seat at the top of the steep stairway that was once the foundation of the ancient Zapotec temple.  We had a vantage point high above the plaza.  Soon, the abuelas with their grandchildren arrived and filled in the seats around us.  Merry had a conversation with the woman next to us who was wearing a traditional 20-year-old silk rebozo with an extraordinary hand-tied punta (fringe).  The discussion focused on the merits of weaving and wearing rebozos in cotton, silk or art silk/rayon, and how well they drape.  It was a good way to pass the time.

 

By 7:00 p.m. Teotitlan time, Carnival was in full-swing.  Vendors selling bags of potato chips seasoned with salsa and fresh-squeezed lime juice made their way through the crowd. Ringing the plaza were street vendors whose carts were filled with cakes, cookies, churros, cream cones, nieves with fruit flavors like tuna and limon, corn cobs on a stick smeared with mayonnaise and sprinkled with chili, and aguas de sandia or horchata or lemonade.

Nearly the entire village was present represented by all the generations.  The ceremonial aspects include honoring the village leaders who volunteer for one to three-years to keep the services operating.  They sit in prominent reserved seats.  The volunteer police force are present in new green manta cotton shirts and symbolic clubs.  They are watchful that every one behaves themselves.

 

The band tonight was in fine form and the music was definitely perfect for toe-tapping from the bleachers.

 

Oaxaca Photography Workshops offer cultural immersion, too.

 

Portrait Photography Workshop in Oaxaca: Good Friday–Day Five

Today, we are immersed in the reverence and solemnity of Good Friday, moving along with the crowds to photograph the religious and social rituals that are part of this important day. Here in Oaxaca, Mexico it’s called Viernes Santo and celebrated with traditional European-style that very different from the United States.

We are based in Teotitlan del Valle for the second part of our portrait photography workshop. The giant matraca (wood clackers), positioned on top of the church between the two steeples, started yesterday evening on Maundy Thursday and went on all night.  It can be heard throughout the village. To signify the Last Supper, our host Josefina served us succulent fish stuffed chiles rellenos and a potato turnover with salsa, accompanied by white beans to signify the season.

This day, Good Friday, began with not one but two processions, one led by half the townspeople following the figure of Jesus held high on a litter, and the other led by the Virgin of Soledad (solitude) who represents Mary.

 

Each procession was led by a brass band, singers, noisemakers and drummers through different parts of the village.  They converged at the exact same moment in the Zocalo in front of the village governing center called the Municipio or Palace.

There must have been 600 people sitting under the shade of the rug market, on the steps of the Palace and protected by umbrellas from the fierce sun that was strong even at ten o’clock in the morning.  The priestly benediction included adhering to the ways of Jesus to refrain from violence, alcoholism, and to maintain strong community and family connections.  A good universal message, I thought.

 

This is a reverent and solemn occasion for the people of Teotitlan del Valle. Most here take their religious life seriously and are observant.  I was impressed by the mix of husbands and wives and children, young men and women, as well as the traditional abuelas and abuelos (grandmothers and grandfathers) who participated today.

     

It was not unusual to see entire families sitting together or standing for the hour-long priestly blessing.  There is no mass on Good Friday as is the custom.  In the magic light of late in the afternoon, the people processed from the church to the cemetery and then back again.  This will complete the spiritual connection with dead loved ones, as well.

   

Our next photography workshop is this summer 2012:  Oaxaca Photography Expedition: Market Towns and Artisan Villages.  Two spaces left.  Don’t miss it!

 

 

Lunes Santos Procession Celebrates Easter Monday

Lunes Santos, also known as Holy Monday or Easter Monday, is part of the Semana Santa week celebration in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca.  The procession is a village pilgrimage, complete with horse in dazzling livery with youthful rider, children dressed as Roman soldiers and babies in white adorned with glittering wings and floral crowns.  It is a photographic feast.

The procession winds through the streets of the village after beginning at the Iglesia de Preciosa Sangre de Cristo (Church of the Precious Blood) at nine in the morning.  They stop at altars sheltered with tapetes (handwoven rugs) set up along the way for refreshment and rest, a reenactment of the Twelve Stations of the Cross.  This is my first Semana Santa in Oaxaca — tomorrow begins our portrait photography workshop that will delve into the personal images of Semana Santa.  I set my alarm for seven o’clock this morning so I would not miss this solemn village event. (Next photo workshop based in Teotitlan is during Dance of the Feather.)

Our first stop was at the corner of Av. Benito Juarez and 2 de Abril where the figures of Jesus and Mary were placed under the altar and adorned with fresh orchids.  The priest said a blessing.  People came to the altar to make a prayer and leave an offering.

    

The women had been up early preparing tejate with masa and cacao that had been ground by hand on the metate.   Then men came through the crowd with handpainted gourds filled to the brim and handed one to me.  It was delicioso and muy rico!  We were thirsty and tired pilgrims.

   

I asked Josefina about the significance of the babies dressed in white with wings.  They symbolize purity and innocence, she said, adding that this was an important part of the celebration.  I extrapolate that it is connected to being reborn and ressurrected which is the essential meaning of Easter.

In my own faith tradition, I would interpret this to mean that each year we each have an opportunity to start afresh with new hope and opportunity to do better in the world.

At our next lengthier stop at the corner of Independencia and Hidalgo, we were served a homemade nieves (ice cream refreshment.)  The priest led the assembly in prayer and the band played solemnly.

       

The procession wends its way through the village, stopping in each of the five sections, for villagers to give and receive blessings, picking up pilgrims along the way as was the tradition centuries ago.  I am reminded of when I visited Jerusalem and encountered the pilgrims from many nations: Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas.  I saw them walking the Via Dolorosa to recreate history and affirm their belief.  Today was no different.