Preparations for Ajijic’s extended Easter Week Passion Play program have picked up a frenzied pace in recent days, with show time now just a week away.
While principal actors began studying dialogue in the revised 2012 script back in January, the full cast is currently on permanent call for the nightly rehearsals held at the town square. Meanwhile, set builders gather their tools to work long into the night on the east end of the patio outside the Capilla del Rosario. The organizing committee headed by Eduardo Ramos is also finalizing details for the string of public events to run from Sunday, April 1 through Saturday, April 7.
Traditional festival
An event well-known in the Mexican community but often overlooked by foreign residents is the Verbena Jamaica del Pasado held on Palm Sunday each year. The traditional festival, held as a fundraiser to cover costs of staging the Passion Play, will begin about 4 p.m. and extend into the evening hours.
The Ajijic plaza will be decorated to the hilt in traditional Mexican décor. The food will be delicious traditional Mexican dishes that have been favorites through the years, prepared, along with the desserts and drinks, in the old way, without the use of electricity or gas. Cooking is done over wood fires and no disposable plastic is used to serve the food. Traditional music and games will be offered for fun.The “Memory of Light” is celebrated about 9 p.m. as the square is filled with the light of oil lamps, candles and lanterns and the evening is topped off with the traditional hand-painted chicken eggs filled with confetti that are broken over the heads of others to wish them prosperity and happiness.
Procession
The Verbena weaves into the Passion Play’s opening, as actors portraying Jesus and his disciples recreate the Messiah’s triumphal entrance to Jerusalem in the town’s annual Palm Sunday procession.
As the sun begins dipping toward the horizon, families residing on Calle Parroquia-Hidalgo will help set the scene by decorating their home exteriors with palm fronds and crepe paper streamers, sweeping and watering down the cobblestones, laying down a long carpet of freshly cut alfalfa along the full stretch between Seis Esquinas and the San Andres Church. Residents of the street are also asked to cooperate by refraining from parking their cars along the route that afternoon.
Street vendors will wander about hawking palm fronds woven into decorative shapes and bunches of fresh greenery that the throng of villagers will carry as they join the five-block trek, setting off around 6:30 p.m. for arrival at the church atrium for the Domingo de Ramos Mass.
The entire Palm Sunday program is beautiful to behold, showcasing the hard work and admirable community spirit of our native neighbors. It reminds us all about the richness of Mexican culture and the reason so many foreigners have chosen to put down roots here at lakeside.
Palm Sunday activities will also take place in other lakeshore communities. Look for a full schedule of Holy Week activities in the Reporter’s next edition.