Easter in Mexico

Easter celebration in Mexico is a fusion of Christian rituals and native Indian traditions. As part of their effort to convert Indians, Christian missionaries allowed indigenous people to blend their customs with Easter rites, and many of these customs appear in passion plays. But in the face of a cultural onslaught from American media vehicles, many of Mexico's age-old traditions are falling out of favor in large cities such as Guadalajara.

Easter in Mexico is a combination of Semana Santa (Holy Week - Palm Sunday to Easter Saturday) and Pascua (Resurrection Sunday until the following Saturday). On Palm Sunday people use elaborately woven palms. Weavers ply their craft outside churches, and worshipers follow the priest into church with the woven fronds. Later, those palms are traditionally hung on the doors of Mexican homes to ward off evil.

In many communities across Mexico, locals stage Passion Plays depicting Biblical events such as the Last Supper, the Betrayal, the Procession of the 12 Stations of the Cross, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The enactments are often spectacularly staged, costumed and acted, with volunteers preparing for their roles for nearly the full year leading up to Semana Santa.

The most spectacular of Easter traditions in Mexico is the burning of a Judas effigy filled with firecrackers. This custom, which takes place Holy Saturday, was outlawed in Guadalajara in the 1960s when several people died from a massive explosion, but it still continues in rural areas.