Traditions of Lent in Mexico

Lent is the period of forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. The word for Lent in Spanish is Cuaresma, which comes from the word cuarenta, meaning forty, because Lent lasts for forty days (plus six Sundays which are not counted). For Christians, this is traditionally a time of sobriety and abstinence meant to correspond to the time Jesus spent in the wilderness.

Many people decide to give up something that they enjoy for Lent. In Mexico it is customary to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent.

Mexican Food for Lent:

Some foods are traditionally associated with Lent in Mexico. It is very common to eat seafood on Fridays; fish and shrimp are both very popular. Another food commonly eaten during Lent is empanadas de vigilia. These empanadas are made with a flour pastry shell and stuffed with vegetables or seafood. A dessert that is often served during this time of year is capirotada, which is a kind of Mexican bread pudding with raisins and cheese. The ingredients in capirotada are believed to represent the suffering of Christ on the cross (the bread symbolizes his body, the syrup is his blood, the cloves are the nails on the cross, and the melted cheese represents the shroud.)

Dates of Lent:

The dates of Lent vary from year to year as do the dates of Carnival and Easter. In the Western church (as opposed to the Eastern Orthodox church which celebrates on a different date) Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.

The dates of Lent for the coming years are:

2018 - February 14 to March 29
2019 - March 6 to April 19
2020 - February 26 to April 9
2021 - February 17 to April 2

Ash Wednesday:

The first day of Lent is Ash Wednesday. On this day, the faithful go to church for mass and afterwards people line up to have the priest draw the sign of the cross in ashes on their forehead. This is a sign of repentance and is meant to remind people of their mortality. In Mexico, many Catholics leave the ashes on their foreheads all day as a sign of humility.

The Six Fridays of Lent:

In some regions of Mexico there are special celebrations on each Friday during Lent. For example, in Oaxaca, the fourth Friday of Lent is the Día de la Samaritana, the fifth Friday of Lent is celebrated in nearby Etla at the Señor de las Peñas Church. The custom is similar in Taxco, where there is a celebration on each of the Fridays during Lent in a different nearby village.

The sixth and final Friday of Lent is known as Viernes de Dolores, "Friday of Sorrows." This is a day of devotion to the Virgin Mary's , with particular attention to her pain and suffering at the loss of her son. Altars are set up in churches, businesses and private homes in honor of the Virgin of Sorrows.

These altars will contain certain specific elements such as glasses of water that represent the tears of the Virgin, citrus fruit to represent the bitterness of her pain, and ceramic animals covered in chia sprouts ("chia pets") because the sprouts represent new life and resurrection.

Palm Sunday:

Palm Sunday, known in Mexico as Domingo de Ramos is one week before Easter, and is the official start of Holy Week. On this day, Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem is commemorated. Artisans set up stalls outside of churches to sell intricately woven palms in the shape of crosses and other designs. In some places there are processions recreating Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem.

Source: tripsavvy