Gaudalupe Noise

For the past 4 days we have been hearing fireworks exploding day and nite. Sounds like bombs going off. I think they have a staff of guys whose job it is, 24/7 to make sure there are very few moments of silence leading up to the Fiesta. All the excitement has been building up to Dec 12th, The Fiesta of the Virgin of De Guadalupe, or something like that. Apparently Guadalupe is not a true Saint, but she is very popular in MX for reasons I know not. Todos Modos, (anyway) the whole country makes a holiday of it and in Villa Corona there are 2 churches, one big one, and one smaller one. They are about ¼ mile apart, and the deal in Villa Corona is they move the Virgin’s edifice from the big church to the small one. To move it, they have to have a big fiesta, a parade, and a special Mass. And then a big party in the streets!
The parade route goes right thru town and they cover the street with fresh green alphafa, and down the center of the green road they place two parallel lines of poinsettia leaves. Very pretty. There are marching/dancing teams making a lot of noise with their shoes and jangles. (see the picture). The first character in the parade is Dead Man; I think he may represent the end of the season, not sure. The bands play as loud as absolutely possible, mostly drums and trumpets. Then women and girls get all dressed up in their finest festive wear and bedecked with flowers, lots of flowers. The children are especially cute. They walk down the green road along the sides, not in the middle where the poinsettia lines are. Then comes the Virgins edifice, carried by 4 strong men in their costumes right down the center of the road between the poinsettia lines. And to end the procession, there is a float with two really young children on it. The little girl must represent Guadalupe, and the boy is dressed up and looks like a baby Pope. Totally cute, especially since the on the roof of the house we were in front of there was a blow up Santa Claus waving, and the Pope & Guadalupe could not take there eyes off of him. Then the Mass, it went on and on, communion and all, now bear in mind there were a few thousand people there. The communion line was long. The minute the Mass was over, the Tequila stand right out in front of the church opened with gusto. The party begins. Food booths of all kinds, kids games, people all over the place. The music and party went well past 3AM.
The nicest thing about the parade was when the lady in the house we were in front of came out and gave us all seats from inside her house to sit on. Nice town, nice people.