San Andres Fiesta -- It is going to be very noisy here for the next ten days!

Date: Fri, Nov 21, 2014

The biggest event of the year in Ajijic - the San Andres Fiesta - There will be morning, noon, and night cohetes (sky rockets), church bells. and possibly bandas in the streets to announce the Masses that will be held. Various processions will proceed from different neighborhoods on different days, at different times of the day, depending. Patron Saint Fiestas are funded and organized by different groups of the townspeople each day, and each will have their own unique presentation. Each night, there will be procession to the church at 6:30 for the 7pm Mass. The last night of the fiesta is sponsored by the Absent Sons - those who have gone to the US to work and send money home to their families, and is always the biggest night of the fiesta with the plaza packed with young adults who haven't seen each other in a while - a very joyous occasion.

Nov. 22 is the feast day of Saint Cecelia, patron of music, so there will be extra classical and other music performances at the church in the evening. The excitement gradually builds every night until the actual Feast Day of San Andres on November 30.

There will be street closures during the fiesta around the plaza and church to accommodate various vending stands and kids' rides. The Calle Zaragoza bus will not be dropping into town; you'll need to go to the carretera to catch the westbound bus.

Each night starting around 8 or 9pm after the evening Mass, to the 30th, the feast day of San Andres, there will be bandas performing in the plaza for your dancing pleasure, food, drinks, rides, and a different castillo will be constructed and lit each night around 10:30 or 11 in front of the church along with with more fireworks. Castillos are structures like scaffolding which will be wired with many sizzling, spinning, sparkly things. They defy description - you simply have to see them; during the afternoons, they will be under construction by fearless young men - a fascinating sight to see in itself.