Mexican trip after 8 years: Easter Celebration in Mexico

It has been practically two weeks since I had no chance to update this blog and continue the story of my trip to Mexico. The reason why is that, it has been a lot to do with keeping in touch with people and travel different places.

After staying in Queretaro with one of my sisters, then I went to visit two brothers in Puebla. Then, spending time in Puebla and visiting important cities in that state and then returning to Mexico City and continue catching up with people.

In the meantime I was in Queretaro and later, when I returned from Puebla to Mexico City, Easter Celebrations were the fashion in Mexico.

In Mexico, the Celebration of Easter is called "Pascua de Resurreccion", meaning Passover, celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This Holy Week has a very religious tone, celebrating and representing the Entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, then the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, then the Death of Jesus Christ on Holy Friday, The Holy Grave on Saturday of Glory and, finally, Jesus Christ's Resurrection on Pascal Sunday.

Mexico is a country with a lot of tectonic activity. And, in this Holy Saturday, it did happen to be an earthquake with an epicenter in Acapulco. This earthquake was felt in many parts of the country like in Mexico City, Puebla, Queretaro and Jalisco. This earthquake was felt early in the morning around 7 am. It was magnitude 7.2 in the Richter Scale (now it is much more considered the Moment magnitude Scale that applies to all type and magnitude earthquakes).

Coincidentally on that Earthquake Day, in the afternoon, there were representations of the "Via Crucis", meaning The Stations of the Cross. These representations take place in a Suburb called Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico City. These performances are very famous and take a year preparation for one day public performance. The actor who does the role of Jesus Christ is a chosen man within the community of Nezahualcoyotl area. This actor has to have good behaviour during the previous years to represent with dignity the role of Jesus Christ being sacrificed. The representation has no special effects, it means that the guy really gets crucified practically, does receive whippings and has a real crown of thorns around his head that causes him to bleed. Possibly, he will not be nailed on the cross like Jesus Christ, but he will be carrying a big cross and being hurt too.

I was thinking on that same day, that if the earthquake was happening in the afternoon, it would have been considered as part of the performance after Jesus Christ's Crucifixion and Death. People would have believed that that guy was indeed a real Jesus Christ in that performance, and the fake Jesus Christ who has the role in that performance would have been freaking out being crucified and not being able to move looking for a refuge during that earthquake. Who knows what would have happened, but this is my view.

Another important news on TV on that day, Holy Saturday, was the death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, famous Colombian novelist who passed away in Mexico City on that day.

In my family, as we have close european background, saying Spanish, French and German, we have also the tradition of celebrating Easter with Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies and Easter Hens.

Here you will see some photos of how our Easter was celebrated, firstly in Queretaro and later in Mexico City another day, as a belated Easter Sunday a week after.

Over several weeks, empty egg shells were prepared. Then, we gathered them together and painted them.
In a rush to prepare, we used marking pens instead of acrylic paint.