| Dia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Lady of Guadalupe Day |
December 12th is traditionally known in Mexico as the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) celebrating the manifestation of the Virgin Mary appearing to the Aztec Native Juan Diego on Dec 9, 1531.
As Juan Diego was on his way to morning services at a nearby church, he was stopped by the sound of heavenly music from the top of Tepeyac Hill (former site of worship for the Aztec Goddess Tonántzin). He climbed the hill and saw a dark skinned woman surrounded by light and music. She told Juan Diego she wanted a temple built on the very spot they were standing. She asked the Indian in his native tongue, Náhuatl, to go the Bishop Zumárraga and request that a church be erected in her honor.
Juan Diego went to the Bishop and made the request for the Virgin. As expected, the Bishop did not believe Juan Diego, he wanted proof. Several days later, when Juan Diego was rushing to find a priest for his dying uncle, she appeared again to him. She instructed him to take his tilma (cape made from cactus fibers) and gather up all the roses that had miraculously grown at her feet, despite the winter frost. Juan Diego took these flowers to the Bishop, and as they poured out from his tilma, an image of the Virgin appeared on it. The image is one of the Virgin surrounded by the light of heaven and the stars of the winter solstice sky. It is this tilma, the relic of the Basílica de Guadalupe, for which millions of people from all over the world make a pilgrimage to the Tepeyac Shrine in Mexico City every year on the 12th of December. On the eve of the anniversary of the final appearance of the Virgin, and in the week before, churches, schools, organizations and businesses have their own processions through their towns.
December 2002
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