Well today is Our lady of Guadalupe Day, not a public holiday, but a lot of people seem to have it off anyway, as 2 buses of tourists arrived this morning. Like a lot of religious events, it has something to do with the appearance of the Virgin Mary. 2000 years and you still can't stop her from popping up in the oddest places.
In this case its a suburb of Mexico City, Hill of Tepeyac where she popped up in 1531 speaking Nahuatl, the ancient language of the Aztecs to a guy named Juan Diego, and asking for church to be built (a common request apparently). She actually appeared 5 times just to let Juan know she was not just kidding around, and he had better take her serious. He apparently had a bit of trouble convincing the Archbishop, who thought he had been smoking a bit too much whacky tobaccy, so the virgin hid a bunch of flowers in Juans cloak. When he flashed the Archbishop, just to show just what he thought of him, the petals fell out and formed an image of the Virgin Mary on the ground. That was enough to convince the stodgey old blighter, and the church got built.
Well that is the gist of it, from what I know.
A bit chilly this morning, only 75 F, many were wearing winter coats. This probably means a bunch of fireworks. Mexicans celebrate everything with fireworks. they are especially fond of setting them off at 3 AM for maximum effect.
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