A steady drizzle that began well before sun-up slackened as soon as the Virgin of Zapopan arrived in Chapala Sunday, July 9, for her annual summer visit, allowing a throng of around 7,000 pilgrims to stay dry while raising prayers for a bountiful 2017 rainy season and good fortunes for Mexico’s largest lake.
Festivities were replete with customary pageantry and religious fervor, beginning with a welcome parade along Avenida Madero.
Ensconced in a glass case and dressed in elegant attire, she rode atop a huge float adorned with massive floral arrangements and a replica of one of the figures of the town’s emblematic Fisherman’s Fountain for the hour-long procession. She was escorted by the San Francisco Drum and Bugle Corps, scores of colorfully outfitted ritual dancers, various musical troupes, platoons of Basilica de Zapopan honor guards and Cardinal José Francisco Robles, the archbishop of Guadalajara.
Arriving at the end of the avenue for the celebration of mass, La Zapopana was greeted with the release of hundreds of balloons, the inevitable barrage of sky rockets, cheers and applause from the assembled congregation, and giant showers of confetti shot from a canon. During the service the image was set on top of a large fish tank filled with a school of live carp netted from the lake.
For his homily, the Cardinal picked up on this year’s slogan “Una gota de agua vale mucho” (one drop of water is worth so much), stressing that in addition to asking the Virgin for divine intervention to protect the lake, the faithful are obliged to take responsibility for wise use of all water resources that are a gift from God to sustain all living beings
.
Immediately following the service, the Virgin was toted out to the end of the Chapala pier for a blessing over the lake. She was then carried to the San Francisco Church to remain next to the main altar for an overnight vigil.
Under cloudy skies early Monday, the rain held off again as several hundred families gathered at the pier to accompany La Virgen on a nautical jaunt to Scorpion Island where Chapala curate Enrique Monteón Curiel officiated at a religious service, followed by a free fish feast hosted by local fishermen.