If you woke up to the sound of skyrockets this morning, you know you’re in Mexico! There are two major holidays to celebrate today, and you’ll hear the reminders all day long.
First and foremost, today is the the Day of the Holy Cross or El Día de Santa Cruz; the whole country will be decorating the crosses in and around their villages and towns. If that wasn’t enough, it is also the feast day of the construction workers and in a sort of macho rivalry each construction crew strives to light more of the giant skyrockets to remind everyone within earshot that their team is best honoring the day and the cross – the proof is being able to afford all the cohetes to honor the Holy Cross.
Processions, Mass, Music and Brandy
As dawn breaks, the frequency of the cohetes increases, waking the men and calling them to an early morning prayer service in their honor. To ward off any possibility of chill during the pre-dawn hours, an abundant supply of brandy and rompope (milk-based liquor) is carried in the procession to the church.
Mixed into the crowd at convenient distances are men carrying huge caldrons of hot cinnamon tea and towers of Styrofoam cups. The town brass band accompanies the masons as they crisscross the village, stopping to refill cups, wake companions and serenade their employers and jobsites with " Las Mañanitas ," the celebration song that begins every special day in Mexico.
After mass, the band picks up the volume and rhythm into rollicking polka-beat nortena, ranchero and banda music, announcing to the community that a special celebration in the church year, and a special time in the lives of the workers, has officially begun.
Erecting the Cross and the Celebration
Later the men gather at their job sites to fasten a cross brightly decorated with crepe paper flowers and streamers, onto the uppermost section of the building, continuing the tradition that the Spanish initiated during the building of early Mexican churches in the 1500's.
In those old days, when the cross was put on the top of a newly finished church, the Spanish priests and missionaries honored the workers with food and drink and allowed them a rare opportunity to enjoy indigenous music and dancing. The workers made offerings of copal, (traditional pungent incense) and music to the gods. They began the celebration by making noise – as much noise as possible -- to frighten any loitering evil spirits from the area. After five hundred years, puffs of smoke dot the sky marking the construction sites where the joyful and thankful workers release skyrockets. The need to disturb loitering evil spirits is forgotten, but the custom continues.
The patron and the contractor arrange for drinks, music and the skyrockets, enough for the remainder of the day and evening. Although the origin has long been forgotten, many of the traditions during the celebration reflect the time when Spanish priests abolished the bloody sacrifices of the indigenous Mexicans. The people, fearing the anger of the gods and the ensuing destruction of their homes, jobs and lives, quietly incorporated as many of the old customs as they thought necessary to appease the gods.
History Links Bricklayers to the Holy Cross
It’s not common for two feast days to share a single calendar date. While few brick masons remember the legend, there is a story here that matches the workers with the cross.
It seems that nearly 1700 years ago, St. Helen, (she is Santa Elena in Spanish) the mother of Emperor Constantine, was sent by her son to the Holy Lands to supervise the building of the first basilicas at the sites of the birth and death of Jesus Christ.
Helen was obsessed with finding the cross on which Jesus died -- a vision of the cross during battle had saved Constantine and also caused him to become a Christian. The construction of these early churches was frequently delayed while Helen took masons off the job to dig in various locations for the original cross.
Finally, it is said, in 332 A.D., while leveling the top of Calvary, the workers found pieces of wood and the plaque, which read "King of the Jews."
May 3 or September 14?
Then in 1960, Pope John XXIII removed "The Day of the Discovery of the Holy Cross" from the liturgical calendar, hoping to focus world-wide celebration on the "Day of Exaltation of the Holy Cross" on September 14. T
The change was most unpopular in Mexico. Rome had managed to upset two of Mexico's most macho groups with one fell swoop. September 14 is right in the midst of Mexico's Independence Day celebrations and is the feast day of the super macho Mexican Cowboy, the Charro.
If upsetting the Charros wasn't bad enough, May 3 had been the feast day of the Mexican masons since the arrival of the Spanish, and the Mexican construction workers' unions weren't anxious to relinquish their day. To complicate the issue, the Holy Day was not being moved, it was disappearing entirely, leaving the bricklayers without a feast day.
They would not even consider sharing the Feast Day of the Charros in September. A real Mexican standoff between the church and the brick masons was avoided when Mexico's highest-ranking church officials petitioned Rome to allow Mexico to keep May 3rd as the Day of the Holy Cross.
The faith of the workers, or perhaps it was the intense discussions and demonstrations of the unions won. Rome wisely agreed to allow the popular celebration to continue, but only in Mexico.
Each year, Mexico City's Primate Archbishop conducts services at the Cathedral, blessing the colorfully decorated crosses carried in procession by the bricklayers and masons. This special mass (and those across the country) asks for the protection of the workers on the job, gives thanks for their safety and success during previous year, and asks for continued good projects in the coming year.
Meanwhile, Mexico continues to honor the cross on May 3 – sometimes called the Day of the Flowery Cross as processions of singing pilgrims, carrying streamers and flowers, wend their way through the towns and villages of Mexico to decorate the crosses along roadsides and on mountaintops. All across the nation, thousands of crosses in streets, parks, cemeteries and churchyards are decorated to honor the Holy Cross on which Jesus was crucified with flowers and streamers – decorations that are reminiscent of other old May Day festivities – like the May pole, crowning of the May Queen, and May baskets.
Those traditions of celebrating the return of spring by decorating with flowers and streamers probably immigrated to Spain with an influx of Irish in the 14th and 15th centuries. Ancient Romans, Druids and other pagan fertility and agricultural rites included "bringing the May" with colorful beribboned garlands of flowers. I like knowing that today’s traditions are layered with bits and pieces of customs from much earlier times!
Thanks to Juan Gilberto Higuera Rivera and the The Little Company of Ajijic for their help in obtaining photos for this article.
Subscribe