Faith, frivolity and communal feasting are the common denominators at the culmination of the novena honoring the patron saint of upper Ajijic’s Barrio de San Sebastián, which is happening Friday, January 19 and Saturday, January 20.
Activities on Friday begin at 5 p.m. with neighborhood kids gathering to scramble for prizes hanging at the top of the palo encebado (greased pole). Householders then head to the San Andrés parish for 7 p.m. Mass, followed by a procession back uphill, carrying the statue of Saint Sebastian Martyr from the church to a shrine erected at the corner of Calles Marcos Castellanos and Emiliano Zapata. A welcome ceremony with mariachi music starts at 9 p.m., topped off with the torito, a bull-shaped bamboo figure that shoots off firecrackers as its carrier dashes about among the celebrants.
Saturday kicks off with the mañanitas parade around the barrio at 5:30 a.m., followed by Mass celebrated in front of the shrine at 7 a.m. Afterward, householders sit down for a free street breakfast of menudo (tripe soup). Home cooks then go back to their kitchens to prepare the communal midday meal of pipián mole accompanied by rice, beans and tortillas, dished out for one and all at 2 p.m.
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