The Saint's Day and the Village

The fiesta honoring Saint Anthony as patron saint of San Antonio Tlayacapan concludes on the June 13, the anniversary of St. Anthony's death in 1231. Each day of the town's celebration is sponsored by a different village family. There are special Masses, processions, bands, dancing, carnival rides and games in San Antonio Tlayacapan each day of the fiesta.

The events of the patron saint's fiesta of San Antonio Tlayacapan are held in and around the church and plaza of the small village between the towns of Chapala and Ajijic. Many foreigners only see the section of the village of San Antonio that borders the carretera (highway). While Absolut Fenix, Super Lake, Tony's Meats and Restaurant, Vinos y Licores La Paz, Panino, and Mail Boxes are favorite haunts of the foreign residents and area guests, the charming village three blocks away too often remains unexplored.

The fiesta in San Antonio Tlayacapan is well known as the biggest party in the area, It's even said that the fiesta's noise brings the first summer season rains. In recent years, devout village families are striving to bring the emphasis back on the patron saint and the church. One way they have accomplished this is by dressing some of the village's children in the brown robes of the Franciscan monks for the evening processions.

St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost items, romance, old maids, boats, shipwrecks and poor people. Statues of San Antonio are prominent in many area churches. In church statuary, San Antonio always wears brown Franciscan robes and often holds the child Jesus, a white lily, or a book.