December Celebrations In Guatemala: Devotion To The Virgin Of The Guadalupe Editorial Photo

Mariachis, Mexican regional folk singers, are seen singing and serenading inside the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe, in Guatemala City, during the Virgin of the Guadalupe celebrations. This traditional celebration held each December commemorates the dates when the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, miraculously appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in Tepeyac, Mexico during colonial times. This legend has its origins in oral story and is documented in Nahuatl with latin characters, It is famous among Mexico and other Latin American countries. It is a special tradition to Catholicism worldwide. The story is told in the nahuatl tale, Nican Mopohua, and it tells about the miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego while he was traveling to Tepeyac, Mexico between December 9th and 12th of 1,531. The Virgin ordered Juan Diego to make the Bishop and the Catholic Church build a place of worship right where she appeared on her name, on the side of the place called the Hill of Tepeyac, which later became part of Villa de Guadalupe, in a suburb of Mexico City. With following apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego, and miracles like the healing of his ailing uncle announced by her, and the painting out of thin air of an image of her in a cloth with flowers, dropped by Juan in front of the Bishop while visiting him, a church was built in her name. Later in time, Juan Diego was beatified by the Catholic Church of present day. The tradition has extended to countries like Guatemala, where an image with the same name is venerated by thousands in a church called Sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Here, the celebrations include a procession where the image runs through the streets surrounding the sanctuary, in Guatemala City, families visiting the image to pray to it, with their children dressed in traditional Mayan attires, a fair set outside the church, and singers offering a serenade at midnight to the image, in the shrine of the Church.