The Covid 19 threat is forcing the Lake Chapala region’s Roman Catholic communities to break with dearly held customs and observances of the Easter season.
It is not egg hunts and family feasts that the Mexican people will miss on April 12 of this year, but rather the entire series of traditional activities that would otherwise take place from Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) through Domingo de Pascua (Easter Sunday) and on through the following week.
It starts with the Palm Sunday processions normally held in every lakeshore pueblo, when crowds of pilgrims carrying herbal bouquets or woven palm frond figures parade through streets following impersonators of Jesus Christ and the Disciples to commemorate the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The cavalcades end at the local church for celebration of the Mass. Townspeople in Ajijic gather at the plaza after the service for an old-fashioned village fair. None of that will happen on April 4, 2020.
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