El Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe

December 12 is the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Wikipedia says:

According to the traditional account, the image appeared miraculously on the cloak of Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City on December 12, 1531. The icon is on display in the Basilica of Guadalupe in the same locality and is regarded as Mexico's most popular religious and cultural image.

Mexonline tells the story of Juan Diego's encounter:

Juan Diego was a young indigenous Indian walking toward the Hill of Tepeyac on December 12, 1531 when he was stopped by the appearance of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary appearing to Juan Diego was a young woman with black hair and dark skin which looked more like an indigenous person. She ordered Juan Diego to go to the Bishop and ask him to build a church at the Hill of Tepeyac. Juan Diego then ran to the Bishop to tell him what the Virgin Mary had told him. The Bishop didn't believe what this young men was telling him and decided to ignore the petition.

The Virgin Mary appeared again in front of Juan Diego and told him to collect flowers from the top of the hill, but because it was December Juan Diego knew that there was not going to be any flowers at the rocky hill. Upon reaching the top of the hill, Juan Diego was surprised to see that it was covered with colorful and beautiful flowers. Juan Diego, as he was asked to, collected the flowers using his overcoat and ran again to see the Bishop.

Juan Diego gave the coat full of flowers to the bishop, and here the bishop discovered the image of Virgin Mary's picture was miraculously traced on the coat. Seeing both the unseasonal flowers and the image of the Virgin, the Bishop realized Juan Diego had told him the truth and The Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe was built on the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico City.

MexConnect explains the significance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to Mexicans:

Truly, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the rubber band that binds this disparate nation into a whole. She is the common denominator of this land, it is she giving Mexicans a sense of Nationalism, and Patriotism. Their brotherhood comes from the strength of intense faith rooted in indigenous attributes, images, symbols, magic and myth. The focus of this intense faith revolves around Our Lady, La Virgen Maria de Guadalupe, the mother of God who appeared in Mexico in 1531.
[...]
On her special day, December 12, all of Mexico, and all Mexican sons and daughters on the other side gather for the celebration of the Virgin. An endless parade of pilgrims from the country’s four points appear at her Basilica with their flowers, songs, chants and prayers. They stream in processions led by indigenous dancers, to every church named for her. Wreaths of flowers adorn the signs of streets, neighborhoods, and towns bearing her name.

The church in our neighborhood is called "La Capilla de la Virgen María de la Medalla Milagrosa" (Chapel of the Virgin Maria of the Miraculous Medal). The church members tonight made their offering to the Virgin on this day of celebration.

Every little while they would stop for a Bible reading. I heard the story of Christ's birth from the book of Luke and I heard the Lord's Prayer. I'm not sure what else they read, or what they did once they got back to the church.

We watched with interest and enjoyed the dancing, drums and shakers. Eva was very excited to see her classmate Lorenzo dancing in the procession.

Here is a clip of the procession, a stone's throw from our house.

Even some of the littlest ones participated.