For more than a week, San Miguelians have been parading and dancing nightly in celebration of the Feast of Saint Michael. When it’s your namesake, you go all out. Right?
And on the last day, you put it all together in the “Grand Desfile de Danzas Locales y Foraneas” — the Grand Parade of Local and Foreign Dances.
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Today’s celebrations of San Miguel Arcangel only theoretically started at 3 a.m. They have been running non-stop for the past week here in San Miguel de Allende. All through last night, the sounds of music and fireworks drifted over the moon-kissed night skies from all directions.
At 3 a.m., the Alboradas converged on the plaza in front of the Parroquia San Miguel de Arcangel. These are the colorful giant twirling stars — one of the happiest sights you’ll see as processionaires dance and twirl their way into the square with marching bands and mohigangas in tow.
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All of San Miguel de Allende knew something was up today, if only because the cohetes exploded us out of our slumber at 5 a.m. and hardly stopped for the next two hours.
That’s way more spiritual pyrotechnics than a minor saint receives, most mornings.
This morning heralded the Festival of Saint Michael the Archangel and the patron saint of San Miguel de Allende. Granted, the festival is not until the weekend of October 3-5, but we are not above having parades to announce future festivals.
Indeed, today’s procession through the community is called La Reseña de la Fiesta Patronal, and it is both an announcement to the community and an invitation to participate in the celebration.
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Yes, those were definitely drums. Not the assertive, muscular, rhythmic pounding that fuels many a procession and parade here in San Miguel de Allende.
These were tentative little thumps, like someone was trying them out for the first time. A test ride. Coming from somewhere near the intersection of Correo and Recreo. Hortus restaurant, on the corner, blocked my view from the Jardin. But you could feel a sort of energy building as the drums grew louder, bolder, more assured, more assertive, rhythmic.
Yes, definitely.
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Eduardo Adame’s gigantic sprawling, eclectic, cultural “potluck party” is about to begin.
A “potluck” is how Adame described the third edition of the two-week-long Festival of the Arts San Miguel de Allende (FASMA) in May, when he was pulling together global and homegrown artists, musicians, singers, actors, poets, photographers, craftsmen, and the like for the showcase.
“Everyone is invited to bring the best that they can do – and invite their friends,” he said back then, expanding on the analogy
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Well, all those umbrellas did not go to waste. The ones people carried to the Locos parade and the ones sold by vendors under threatening skies.
The rains stayed away and thousands of gaily costumed — and bizarrely, quaintly, curiously, delightfully, enchantingly, dreamily, whimsically, scarily, creepily, amusingly and shockingly costumed — paraders strutted, danced, boogied, jumped and jived their way down the Ancha, en route to the Jardin Allende in the civic square.
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Such a relief.
It now rains most evenings in San Miguel de Allende, somewhere between 5 and 7 p.m. I could almost set my watch by it, if I had a watch.
We got caught in a downpour last night in Colonia San Antonio as we were leaving a nearby Italian restaurant, Denver’s Los Olivos, with some friends. Juan Miguel (Denver) always delights — a very old-school chef with traditional recipes and a dining-in-the-kitchen feel.
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More than five years ago, we lived in a “penthouse” apartment that overlooked this tree from nearly a block away. You could not miss it. You could not turn away. Its color is otherworldly among the beige and brown stucco buildings.
After the splendid jacaranda trees drop their lavender flowers, this one, and more like it in hidden courtyards behind drab walls, spring to life.
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In front of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arc Angel — all day Friday for the feast day of Señor de La Conquista — hundreds of brightly costumed dancers express the most joyous form of worship imaginable.
And exhausting.
Long before noon, it was hot out there. Really hot. I’ve never seen headdresses come off so quickly and water get consumed so rapidly as today. Can you blame them?
But always there were smiles.
So, what’s this all about?
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“Bob,” many of you ask me, “are the flowers in San Miguel really that beautiful? And are there really that many?”
I try to manage expectations.
“Yes,” I say. “There are that many flowers. And, yes, they are that beautiful.”
Musings, Magic, San Miguel and More 