It is Easter Sunday here in Mexico, maybe where you are, too. Never missing an opportunity to celebrate things, Mexicans celebrate Easter for several weeks.
Last week was Semana Santa (Holy Week), but the week before that, there were processions and other goings-on, too. I’m not sure if that week has a special name. Today is called Domingo de Pascua (Easter Sunday), and it marks the end of Semana Santa and the beginning of Easter week, the third in the series.
Unlike most other holidays here, Pascua does not include parties and parades. It is a more serious, reserved kind of religious holiday about church and family. Nor does it include giant, magical rabbits, egg hunts, or baskets full of candy.
Those are features of what is called “syncretism,” the combination of different religions, and are, in this case, exclusive to the US, Canada, and parts of Europe.
The big bunny and colored eggs are leftovers from ancient pagan rites of spring. Christianity tried to replace the pagan holiday with Easter, and mostly succeeded, but folks enjoyed the bunny and egg-hunt parts enough to keep those in the mix, though they had no obvious connection to the savior of the world returning from the dead.
Mexican Easter may not include those forms of syncretism, but it does employ the firing of small rockets that explode in the air and make a big boom. There are different theories for why they do this, but I suspect it is also a form of syncretism going back to before the Spanish Conquest.
In an effort to attract the attention of the gods, the Aztecs used to beat enormous drums that created a deafening sound as loud as thunder. I can’t help but wonder if the use of explosives here during pretty much all religious holidays is left over from that.
Olive Oyl and I are mostly used to this sporadic, year-round practice, but it often begins as early as 5 a.m., which can be alarming for tourists and other visitors. Giant bunnies and baskets of candy at Easter make no more logical sense than explosions, but at least they are quieter.
Since Mexico has incorporated various aspects of American Halloween into its Dia de Muertos holiday, it may not be long before Mexicans in bunny costumes will awaken us on Easter morning by marching down the streets banging gigantic drums. Time will tell.
The cat in my Sunday comic above has a quieter, if no less gentle, way of awakening its gods. It’s always something, I guess.
English (US) · 