A series of traditional festivities normally keep lakeside communities buzzing with activity from the end of April through mid-May. This year the typical hullabaloo will be absent, or at least greatly subdued, as a side effect of the cresting Covid-19 pandemic.
Routine Dia de Niño (Children’s Day) celebrations held on Thursday, April 30 at local schools and public venues have been cancelled as youngsters remain cloistered in their homes.
Although salaried workers are entitled to a day-off on Friday, May 1, Mexico’s Día del Trabajo, there will be no Labor Day march along Chapala’s main avenue as is customary for the occasion.
The real test of whether local people are willing to refrain from practicing age-old traditions will come about on Sunday, May 3, Día de la Santa Cruz (Day of the Holy Cross).
This is the date when albañiles (masons) cut loose by firing off hundreds of ear-splitting sky rockets, mounting colorfully decorated crosses at the high point of construction sites and gathering for rowdy parties hosted by their contractors or private patrones (bosses).
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