December 2012 Part One: Mustaches

We arrived in Oaxaca a few days before December 12, the day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The beloved protector of Mexico is celebrated for a few days with fireworks, a large carnival set up in the park next to the church of Guadalupe and the visitation by a great many little children dressed in their traditional trajes if they are girls, or dressed as Juan Diego, the peasant to whom La Morena showed herself and left her image on his shawl.

The little guys all sport hand drawn mustaches which wear off as the day goes on and eating, playing and nursing all take their toll.

The children wait in a very long line that winds through the church, where they are blessed by the priest, then out into the courtyard of the church where they offer their gifts of fresh vegetables, flowers and candles in front of the statue displayed there.

If the children are big enough they will often kiss the statue, but sometimes the parents or grandparents will touch the statue with a flower, a shawl or their hand and then touch that to the littlest ones.

Which photo do you like best?  Number 1?

Or number 2?