Feast of Santa Barbara

We happened to arrive in Santa Rosalia the day before the Feast of Santa Barbara, who is the patron saint of the local church. So this evening we went in to town to watch the procession and share in the feast. While we were waiting for the procession to begin, we had some great homemade tamales, tacos, and a thick yummy drink called champurrado.

The procession was led by a local marching band, but unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of them. After the band, there was a group of dancers. They had great costumes, but I'm not sure of the meaning or significance.

The youngest dancer tripped over a traffic cone during the routine, but mom rushed out from the crowd and set him back in line before anyone knew what happened.

They were followed by a Yaqui Deer Dancer. Again, not sure what this has to do with Santa Barbara, but it was the highlight of the procession.

Next were some young girls dressed as Santa Barbara. We looked up the story of this saint - a rather gruesome story!


The entire procession made a turn through downtown, and ended up back at the church about 45 minutes later. The band played for awhile outside the church door, the dancers danced, and finally everyone went inside for mass.



This is the church which is supposedly designed by Gustave Eiffel, before he did the Tower. It's made of prefabricated metal, and dates from the late 1800s, when the whole town was run by a French mining company.

We shared tonight's festivities with crew from Third Day, Hotspur and Escape.