A visit to a colonial-era city during All Souls’ Day festival
In the heart of the city at El Jardin Plaza
We decided to meet up with some friends at the colonial-era city of San Miguel de Allende, about 3 hours north of Mexico City in the Mexico highlands. It is widely known for its festivals, in particular the Day of the Dead festival – All Souls’ Day or Dia de los Muertos.
We rented a 400-year old stone house a block away from the main plaza El Jardin. It was a fantastic place with gardens, everything built of solid stone and tile. The stone walls were too thick to let the wifi through, so we were confined to only getting a signal in the dining room.
The main plaza is where the festivities took place. We could see the dramatic pink towers of the church there – the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel - from our balcony.
San Miguel de Allende is a popular ex-pat community, with many Americans and others living here full time, and some snowbirds here for half the year. I love all the old stone buildings around the town's main plaza area, with the cobbled streets running in all directions. I am always drawn to this architectural mix of Spanish and pueblo. This city, like much of Mexico, is blessed with a wonderful climate where so much grows in abundance – flowers, fruit, cactus.
The day of the celebration
For the All Souls’ Day celebration, we hired a team of two people to paint our faces up for it. Fantastically-painted faces are seen everywhere here, so it seemed like a good thing to do. It was a lot of fun watching everyone get painted up (there were 8 of us).
The main plaza exploded with activity after dark. So many people had staked out a part of the sidewalk around the central park and decorated it using endless flowers, skulls, candles, creating entire scenes that looked like they were devoted to family histories. And the extravagantly costumed people were fantastic, posing for photos as the plaza became packed with people. Once it became so thick with people you could hardly move, a long parade of loud clanging musicians wound their way through everyone. I heard fireworks everywhere. Wild craziness.
We visited the two cemeteries as well. One was small and not so crowded. The larger main cemetery was a sight to behold, packed with people and many flower vendors at the entrance. It seemed like it had no room left for any more flowers. It was filled with music from at least 8 different bands. I saw one brass band playing two feet from a band of acoustic guitars. It was crazy. But that’s partly what makes Mexico so cool and interesting.
I felt a sense of sadness in the midst of all the gravestones and urns, yet it was so festive at the same time. I am reminded of some esoteric teachings that maintain a death is to be celebrated as a life successfully completed, not to be mourned for one’s own personal sense of loss. But of course rebirth or reincarnation is part of that belief system, so that death is not seen as the finality it otherwise would be.
They say that anytime is a good time to visit San Miguel de Allende. There is no bad time, though winter is considered high season, known for its clear days and chilly nights.
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