May 3rd--Day of the Holy Cross and Construction Workers
Villagers all over Mexico festoon permanent crosses with garlands of flowers and colorful streamers on May 3. The colorful tradition has that decorates crosses along roadsides, on mountaintops and on unfinished homes has the same roots as the the colorful flower-like May Baskets and streamer wrapped May Poles, but the Mexican day honors the Holy Cross.
The traditions have their roots in Roman and Druid agricultural and fertility rites celebrating the beginning of summer. In 1960 a papal reorganization of the liturgical calendar attempted to end the May celebrations in order to strengthen the other Day of the Cross on Sept. 14. While most of the world adapted, Mexican construction were unwilling to release the celebration of their special feast day in conjunction with the Day of the Cross. September 14 (in Mexico) is also the feast day of the Charros, and the two groups were unwilling to share a day, even for the Pope.
The outcry by the abañiles was so intense that Rome offered a special dispensation to allow the "Day of the Flowery Cross" to continue in Mexico. Few local masons and builders know why their day is associated with the cross or why they put crosses on the buildings they are constructing.
It all goes back to 300 AD, when Constantine was the first Christian emperor of Rome. He send his mother Elena (Helen) to the Holy Lands to supervise the building of churches on the locations where Christ was born and died. Elena was obsessed with finding the cross on which Christ had died, and her workers spent more time excavating on Calvary than they did building.
Each year workers celebrate and honor the cross, giving thanks for the safety and success of the previous year and asking for good work opportunities for the coming year.
The celebrations of the numerous construction crews in Ajijic is a good-natured macho rivalry between crews, as each attempts to fire off the first dramatic volley of the thousands of joyful cohetes (sky rockets) that mark the day. At dawn, roaming bands or workers criss-cross town with bands, playing "Las Mañanitas" at the homes of coherts, bosses, patrons and at work sites. To ward off the early morning chill, the men carry a vat of hot cinnamon tea and bottles brandy and rompope to lace it. By eight AM they've assembled at the church for mass and blessings.
Most crews fasten a cross brightly decorated with crepe paper flowers and streamers onto the uppermost section of the building they are completing, continuing the tradition that began with the building of churches by the Spanish beginning in the 16th century when a celebration followed the mounting of the cross.
Work ends at noon, when the patron, the owner of the project toasts the project and the health and happiness of the crew, and then the owner and the contractor sponsor a comida (midday meal), music and drinks. The meal has evolved from pre-Columbian building dedication services where food and drink was placed on altars to please the gods.
The skyrockets, music and celebration continue until midnight, when the workers wend their way home to prepare for another day on the worksite.
(You can read other articles by Judy King about the traditions and customs of Mexico in Living at Lake Chapala, an on-line magazine at www.mexico-insights.com)
