My Morning

This morning, a Sunday, I woke up at about 8:30 to the sounds of drumbeats down the hill. I jumped out of bed, dressed, grabbed my camera and a book, and headed down the hill in search of the source.

I should interject here that, by now, Peter and I don't usually go in search of parades -- there are so many and many of them are small affairs, just the young military band, sometimes with a religious icon, and we just don't muster the same excitement as we did 5 months ago. As I read on another travel blog, Mexicans like a parade, and any excuse is good enough.

So, why did I wipe the sleep from my eyes and go running this morning? Today is the first day of Spring. I had read that in Guanajuato, and perhaps in other cities, there is a traditional parade for the first day of Spring, that includes the town children dressed as bees, flowers, and other Spring-like creatures (ok, our landlord's grandson said he was going as a rat, but still). There are also some mini queens and kings of the Spring -- small children selected (and even campaigned for by their families and friends), somewhat like a pageant, but I think without all the scary associations we have back home. I had heard the parades happened this year on Thursday and Friday, because it's part of school, and so I missed them (I caught a glimpse Thursday of a little girl dressed as a butterfly in the back of a truck that was decked out with some decorations).

I headed down the hill. Whatever was going on had already passed my area of the center, but I could hear the drums afar. I was encouraged when I passed first a child and then a grown man carrying homemade yellow tissue paper pompoms. I headed up to the central church in town, where there was a crowd. When I got there, I just saw adults carrying yellow and white balloons and the same pompoms, slowly making their way into the basilica. One had one of the traditional banners with a saint and probably the name of their town or church. Not a cute little bee or butterfly to be found. You see, this is why we don't go chasing parades anymore.

Today is also the birthday of my favorite president of Mexico, Benito Juarez (I am far from alone in this love: he is considered to be the Abraham Lincoln of Mexico). His birthday was observed last Monday, with a national holiday.