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Ajijic 9 day November festival


johanson

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Get ready or plan a trip.

"Illegal sale of pyrotechnics shoots up in San Juan Cosalá. The sale of these items is illegal and is extremely risky and dangerous to store and play with gunpowder: Ricardo Herrera, municipal director of Civil Protection and Fire.

This year, the Patron Saint Festivities of San Andrés Apóstol will be longer. To the San Andrés festivities, from November 21 to 30, will be added the three days before and three days after, giving a total of 16 days of celebration.

The Ama Tu Barrio program will also support schools. The "Ama tu Barrio" program implements the rehabilitation of pavements, lighting, sidewalks and aspects that improve the road and image for the benefit of citizens.

Authorities will support the San Andrés festivities with stage, music and pyrotechnic games. The schedule of the parties for the first days will be until 2:00 in the morning and the last days until 3:00 in the morning, as long as there are no quarrels, if any will be made decisions that alter the schedule of the parties."

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10 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

Just the warm up.  The real fun starts on Tuesday.  Anyone have a schedule?  Would like to know the best fireworks night Friday-Sunday so I can take our Oaxaca Iteso student over to see the festivities.  

 

 If you go to the Parroquia de San Andres they usually have a posting outside on a bulletin board of which days are sponsored by which group. 

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10 hours ago, k2tog said:

 If you go to the Parroquia de San Andres they usually have a posting outside on a bulletin board of which days are sponsored by which group. 

The sponsor groups are posted on the AjijicNews.com calendar.

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On 11/19/2017 at 12:31 PM, pappysmarket said:

This year, the Patron Saint Festivities of San Andrés Apóstol will be longer. To the San Andrés festivities, from November 21 to 30, will be added the three days before and three days after, giving a total of 16 days of celebration.

Where did you get this information?  The Fiesta has never had these extra days, it doesn't make sense.  Patron Saint Fiestas always end on the Feast Day of that particular Saint, in this case, San Andres, whose feast day is Nov. 30.  Please explain.

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I’ve still new here, I’ve only lived in Ajijic for 3 years and on and off 18 in Mexico mostly traveling in Baja. This is probably the only time I’ve ever heard this much excitement for an obscure festival that is has only gained momentum since I missed the last two flew right by me. I think this would be something to add in the brochure or history books. 9 days of non stop music and “cohettes” randomly throughout the day.  I do love festivals and this one seems driven with purpose. The 4am practice sessions finales are stronger than the previous days. And to think. They’re only practicing! It’s gonna chain when the they start on day one. Sunday’s was literally the most cultural experience I’ve experienced in the last years than I have in my 18 years of living oveseas.

So what’s the history behind the 9 day celebration. I have no idea how I missed something that screams fun before the fun begins. I’m limited to research on the internet and it doesn’t show up on a search. I’m new here but the brief time I’ve lived here ’ve seen massive amounts of growth in cultural expression. They really seem to have turned up the culture this last year with technology and the festivals are starting to blend together. Is this for a saint? Or a famous post Independence Day. And where’s then funding come from. It seems things are looking up in this sleepy little village. Love it!

 

 

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1 hour ago, Bajabrady said:

I’ve still new here, I’ve only lived in Ajijic for 3 years and on and off 18 in Mexico mostly traveling in Baja. This is probably the only time I’ve ever heard this much excitement for an obscure festival that is has only gained momentum since I missed the last two flew right by me. I think this would be something to add in the brochure or history books. 9 days of non stop music and “cohettes” randomly throughout the day.  I do love festivals and this one seems driven with purpose. The 4am practice sessions finales are stronger than the previous days. And to think. They’re only practicing! It’s gonna chain when the they start on day one. Sunday’s was literally the most cultural experience I’ve experienced in the last years than I have in my 18 years of living oveseas.

So what’s the history behind the 9 day celebration. I have no idea how I missed something that screams fun before the fun begins. I’m limited to research on the internet and it doesn’t show up on a search. I’m new here but the brief time I’ve lived here ’ve seen massive amounts of growth in cultural expression. They really seem to have turned up the culture this last year with technology and the festivals are starting to blend together. Is this for a saint? Or a famous post Independence Day. And where’s then funding come from. It seems things are looking up in this sleepy little village. Love it!

 

 

Bajabrady, this is the annual Fiestas Patronales--the celebration of Ajijic's patron saint, San Andrés.  The nine days of festivities are called a 'novena'--literally means 9 days.  The festival starts on Nov 22, the feast day of St. Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, and ends on the 30th, the feast day of San Andrés (St. Andrew).  If you take a walk over to Templo San Andrés, the parish church a block from the plaza, you'll see his statue over the altar.  Like Jesus, San Andrés was crucified--but his cross was in the shape of an X.  

This 9-day festival has been going on for years and years, with bands every night, castillos (huge fireworks displays), food stands on the plaza and on the street leading up to the church, morning and evening parades, carnival rides on the streets around the plaza, and lots lots lots of revelry and noise.  Cohetes start before dawn and finish at midnight.  

Someone posted that this year the festival has been extended for a day, starting tonight!  Don't miss a minute, it's so much fun.

Cohetes joven_60 Flickr.jpg

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Now now I know. It sounds lively.  So how did I miss this the last two previous two years? I’m listening them practice now and can’t believe that in the three years I’ve lived here  I’ve been living next to the celebration of celebrations. I understand and have grown accustom to  the random and daily ordinances even as it became more frequent and learned ignore the vibrations that follow. I was listening to the music earlier and in my limited Spanish I made out singing at good enough volume so I could make out the words. He was screaming or singing UNO DOS TRES UNO DOS TRES UNO DOS TRES,. Which I believe is counting ipine two three for an hour with the occasional AYE AYE AYE!!! For a good hour. Sunday night he was counting to four but still stayed strong on that mic for an hour. So maybe he’s counting down days until the main event? The speakers helped of course. So basically I’m listening to the warm up. I thought I was listening to the end. But it’s only the beginning! I’ll definitely remember this one.

The history of this festival. Is there somewhere that will give me some more information, I find conflicting information that comes up and the things that I find are are from this year. 2017 that it’s mentioned. Although there’s one man who was surprised by the fireworks, which weren’t we all we first arrived, that a local Mexican resident told him something different about some battle between the town thst lasted nine days and the cohettes he heard we’re sounds of battle. I don’t see anything as descriptive as you were describing. I’m curious as the importance an event that it practices during a nationally recognized holiday. Plus,  I know I could never afford to take nine days off from work for after a two week celebration day of the dead. Who funds these events. I can’t the sound system system is surprisingly nice to be free. Or the musicians, do they work gratis. 

I’m either just waking up to the local entertainment or the entertainment has become local and more frequent. Either way. They have themselves a nice opportunity to become a slamming city that is known for it’s non stop party lifestye. Since Guadalajara is cutting back on noise I see a nice opportunity for and steady income from people who are looking to party! This town has moved almost overnight from boring  day of the church bells and candles in celebration to  a solid uninterrupted non stop 9 day celebration soon 365 days a week party! You have to fly to Vegas for that kind entertainment or find an underground rave that can only run 24 hrs before getting shut down. But not here. We’re on the upward swing as I see it. 

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Bajabrady, although I currently live in Mexico City, I lived in Ajijic from 1999 to about 2005.  The fiestas patronales lasted nine days since long before I got there back then--the nine days are based on the Roman Catholic tradition of the novena, the nine days of prayers and pilgrimages prior to a major saint's feast day, terminating ON the feast day--and they're nine days now.  They were loud then--and they're loud now.  There were bands and cohetes and carnival rides, food and drink stands (the name is terrazas) then, and there is all of that now.  This is not a recent phenomenon, it's part of Ajijic's history and tradition.  When I lived there, one year more than 7000 cohetes were fired off during one 24-hour period.  The whole town was scandalized, and I'm sure that now there are more!  What has happened is that the gremios (similar to workers' unions) who each sponsor a day and night of the festivities have more funds now than ever.  As I suggested in my other post, if you go to Templo San Andrés, you'll find a list of which gremio is sponsoring which day/night's events.  Look for the day of the albañiles--the masons.  They have traditionally had more available funds than the other gremios, so they fire off more cohetes, have the biggest and loudest bands, and burn the most enormous castillos at the end of the gremio's night.  The band you heard practicing isn't a volunteer band so dedicated that it practiced on a holiday; it was hired by the sponsoring gremio for yesterday's start of festivities and was doing a sound check and final practice.  The counting was undoubtedly the leader's keeping time.

San Andrés is the patron saint of both Ajijic and of fishermen.  Ajijic at one time was a major fishing town.  Hence the connection.  There are celebrations for many saints (Ajijic just finished the MONTH of the Virgen del Rosario), but when the saint is the santo patrón of the town, the festival is always more intense.  Just about every town in Mexico has a santo patrón, with that saint's accompanying nine-day fiesta.  You're going to experience the same thing between December 3 and December 12, with the novena leading up to the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the country of Mexico's patron virgin.

Try hard not to romanticize the origins of the festival, and don't believe everything you hear about why this or why that.  Cohetes for a saint's festival aren't about a battle between towns.  One legend is that they are fired off before the dawn processions to wake the angels.  Listen for those processions; you'll hear the participants singing in the streets (every day from a different part of town) as they process toward Templo San Andrés.  This and masses during the day are the religious and spiritual parts of the festivities.  The party is at night, and it's for sure where you'll want to be.

Globos de Noche.jpg

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According to AjijicNews the extra days were added only to the end of the festival - extending from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Also, the Guadalupe festival starts Dec. 4. No more break in-between!

A little banda has performed on our street the last two mornings, complete with cohetes. At least they wait until 7:30 or so before firing up the tubas jajaja

http://ajijicnews.com/pages/Nov_Dec_fiestas

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12 minutes ago, dixonge said:

According to AjijicNews the extra days were added only to the end of the festival - extending from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Also, the Guadalupe festival starts Dec. 4. No more break in-between!

A little banda has performed on our street the last two mornings, complete with cohetes. At least they wait until 7:30 or so before firing up the tubas jajaja

http://ajijicnews.com/pages/Nov_Dec_fiestas

If I ever decide to write a book about living in Mexico, I will call it “There Is Always a Tuba.” 

 

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