Feast of San Jerónimo in Coatepec, Veracruz

[bixaorellana]

St. Jerome is the patron of this town, which celebrates their very ascetic saint with a distinct art form and some rowdy fun.

A major component of the the devotion to St. Jerome is the building of "arcos". These are elaborate arches of wood, cane, weaving, fresh and manufactured flowers. They're carried through the streets and set up over the doors of various churches. As you will see, the carrying of these constructions is certainly a form of devotion. The main support poles can quite literally be the size of telephone poles.

A couple of arcos were being built over a period of days a few blocks from my house. Yesterday evening I figured they had to be pretty well along in their work, since today was the big celebration. Accordingly, I walked over shortly before dark.

In Oaxaca I saw many large "flowers" which rather resembled ivory that made from the base of the Agave plant. Here the sotol plant is used instead, which results in a smaller but equally attractive "flower". Here you see the stalk with the some leaves removed.

These men look rather severe -- well, one just looks drunk -- but were quite welcoming & even organized their friends for a group picture ~









See how the sotol leaves have been woven ~

[bixaorellana]

Apologies for the quality of this group. It was getting pretty dark.

Here comes the band ~

[bixaorellana]

Today I did the feast day in two parts. I walked to town in order to see the alfombras -- the carpets of colored sawdust laid on the streets as an act of devotion. It's tons of work, but of course completely destroyed when the bands, the clowns (yes, clowns) and the men carrying the huge arches walk over the carpets. Returned home afterward, then later I went down again to see the festivities.

Before you commit yourself to this thread, know that there will be lots & lots & lots of pictures.

Here I go late morning, on my way to see the alfombras being laid down.
This crew came screeching down the street and rushed to unload all this greenery for the arco being built ~







There are places on the parade route all ready to serve the throngs ~





Some more salubrious offerings ~



One family had an altar to St. Jerome in the driveway. Note the orchids, pride of Coatepec ~









Hooray! I've arrived to where the alfombra is being created. This street runs straight down to the main square ~

[bixaorellana]

Here is one method of applying the sawdust -- gently shaking a mesh bag of the stuff ~



And for somewhat more precise work, this can on a stick method is used ~





In Coatepec, the streets are referred to by their blocks, so this arch is from the 3rd block of Arteaga street ~

[bixaorellana]

Everyone pitches in, even little bitty kids ~



Safety first ~



Carefully saving the excess sawdust (or sand -- I can't decide) ~







The two girls are making the letters by sprinkling by hand into the outlines ~



Gratuitous shot of a funeral store. I never gave these a thought until I saw tourists in Oaxaca photographing one ~



What is every bit as important as religion to some people?

[onlyMark]

Second post - azulitos and antojitos - took me a second to see the difference but the latter are snacks as far as I remember but the first is a blue alcoholic drink I've never heard of. Is this just around your area or Mexico wide as I don't remember ever seeing it and I'm usually quite good with food and drink.

[htmb]

Incredible! The work that goes into the designs is impressive. Looking forward to seeing more of your photos.

[bixaorellana]

Thanks, you two!

Mark, yes on antojitos meaning snacks, which is a Mexican usage. The literal meaning of the words is "whims".
Those stands weren't open when I took the pictures, so I couldn't ask what an azulito is. I'm also assuming it's an alcoholic drink & also never heard of it before.

Htmb, it is a lot of work indeed. I was also impressed by how many people work on it without there seeming to be any particular order to their labors. Glad you're looking forward to more, as even I don't know how much more there is.

For the moment, here are the last photos from yesterday morning. I still have to go through the afternoon ones.

^{~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~}

At this point we're getting close to the main square, which is Parque Miguel Hidalgo, a lovely 1.5 acre park.
The main square is not called the zócalo here, but rather the parque.

Here the Holy Family is rendered as a decal for the back of your SUV ~



And then, crossing the street, I come upon this unholy family ~



More group weirdness ~



The clown is not a random image. There is a long history of clowns as part of religious processions in this region & some others.
I've not found a satisfactory explanation yet, although it's probably something brought by the Spanish & then fused with existing customs.





Jesus oversees the coffee harvest ~



A large Madonna and Child marks the turn to the street in front of the church of San Jerónimo, completed in 1806 ~

[bixaorellana]

I now round off my morning activities by visiting a pavilion set up in the park.
The park is festive with red, white, & green decorations celebrating September, month of the homeland ~



And inside the pavilion is one of the glories of Coatepec: orchids ~











I exit the park by the government palace and wend my way home to wait for the afternoon's activities ~

[bixaorellana]

In thread time, it's now the afternoon of the morning shown above. I knew the rough schedule of events -- a Mass at 4 o'clock at the site of the big arco shown at the beginning of this thread, followed by a convocation of arcos at the parallel street, and then they'd all set off for the center of town.
While I waited for the right time to go over to the OXXO corner to see the gathered arcos, it began to rain very hard. I'm willing to go out in a certain amount of rain, but the camera is more picky. At any rate, as I sat there fretting about the rain, I heard shouting and commotion outside.
Grabbed the camera and ......

A big arco is being borne over to where Mass is being said ~



Along come another one -- a "little" one this time ~



They stop to rest in front of the miscelánea, as well they might, since they're carrying the arco at almost a run ~



At this point I went inside to dry off the camera & gather my things for another walk downtown.

Along the way I ran into this intrepid crew shouldering this monster arco ~



Here I am at the OXXO corner where convening arcos wait for Mass to be over. Iconic sign of Mexican festivity ~





One of this group snapped to when he saw the camera & gathered the others for a group portrait ~



Pint sized arco bearers share restorative snacks ~



Send in the clowns!



Balloons exiting an automobile ~

[bixaorellana]

If you all have been wondering how the beautiful carpets fared in the rain .....





San Jerónimo waits to be carried to the church ~



"Wish somebody would carry us somewhere!"



Back at the parque ~



I'm in a clump with a mob of people where the road turns to the one in front of the church.
Peering back, from the fireworks smoke, it looks as though they're about to turn the corner and come our way ~



And here it all comes rushing at us!
What you don't see, since we huddled back out of the way, is that the clowns crack huge thick whips as they come ~



Now I know what the balloons are for ~



A little religious solemnity, quickly ushered to the side as they're moving too slowly ~



And here is the man of the hour ~

[bixaorellana]

Let me start getting this thing wrapped up.

Here come the little boy clowns, mean little whip snappers ~





At this point I moved around to stand against the fence across from the church ~



Oh boy! I've been wanting to see these guys. They'll lift the arco and attach it to the church ~





The band played ~



People danced ~



And then everyone runs out of the way, as the biggest arch is turning the corner & coming this way ~

[bixaorellana]

I was awed by the guys carrying these huge contraptions.
They were all good natured and all worked together to carry and maneuver their heavy, unwieldy raft-like arches.

Here we go with the biggest of all, the one that will be put over the door of the chuch ~















I pushed & shoved & surged with the crowd, but didn't make it to the church gate in time to see the arch raised ~





At this point I was pinned in place & ready to call it quits.
I leave you looking at the shoulder of one of the arch bearers ~

[fumobici]

Wow, what a show! I wonder what the arco mounted above the church door must have weighed?

The street decorations are cool. The first time I went to Italy to visit my parents we went to a small town in Marche whose name I've forgot where they do similar decorations with flower petals. I wanted to take some photos but by the time I'd dallied getting AA batteries for my new digital pocket camera, a windstorm had come and blown them all into random confetti.

[kerouac2]

The rainy weather makes it all messier and more interesting. What was the temperature? It must have been cooler than if they had done all that under the blazing sun.

[bixaorellana]

Fumobici, I can't even imagine the weight of that thing. But according to this pdf put out by a rural electric collective, under the chapter, "Getting to Know Your Poles", a 30 feet long pole weighs more than 800 pounds. I'm guessing each support pole for the big arco was a good 20 feet, so .........
The flower carpet decorations must have been exquisite! It's a beautiful memory, photo or no photo.

Kerouac, once the rain cleared, which it did quickly, it got right muggy. I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and felt warm even after the sun went down.
The high on Friday, the day of the procession, was 27c/80.6f, so you know those arcos bearers got hot. When they'd make that turn onto the street in front of the main church, they'd always have to pause a moment to straighten up again. At that point, there was someone standing on the park fence who'd throw water on them. Everyone seemed to laugh about it, but I don't think it was an official cooler-offer, as that person also threw water on crowd members who were dancing to the band.

[bixaorellana]

Adding this arco I saw today to make up for not getting a closeup of the arco on the main church ~

[kerouac2]

I would have expected the colours to be brighter although I very much approve of them using all natural materials.

Imagine what they could do with soda cans and plastic bottles...

[bixaorellana]

That's just a phone picture. If you'll look at the penultimate photo in reply #2, which is the same arch, you can see how beautifully bright the natural materials are.

[JL]

Are the alfombras made with colored sugar?

[bixaorellana]

Ha ha, JL! Maybe that would make sense because it's Veracruz. But no, they're made with dyed sawdust.