Carnival of Huejotzingo
It is noted for its unique traditions which center on the reenactment of stories related to the municipality's history as well as the use of tons of gunpowder used in handcarved muskets in mock battles and other events.
The carnival involves the participation of 12,000 residents in costume, most of which are dressed in outfits related to elements of the armies that fought in the Battle of Puebla.
Mock battles related to this event are reenacted as well as a Romeo and Juliet story and the first Catholic wedding and baptism in Mexico.
[4][5] The activities of this carnival focus on a number of reenactments, although other elements such as “huehue” (meaning old person) dancers also exists.
Festivities are daytime, beginning in the morning, with a break for a main meal in the mid afternoon and then continuing until nightfall.
[6] There are pre Hispanic elements to this carnival, including the mock battles which have been compared to the “flower wars” of the Aztecs.
Carnival coincides with the time that the pre Hispanic inhabitants of Huejotzingo petitioned the gods for fertility of the lands and for abundant rainfall.
[3] The carnival is led by a “General en Jefe de las Fuerzas o Ejercicios Carnavalesco” who is in charge of leading all four days of festivities.
[5] The carnival attracts between 32,000 and 35,000 spectators from both Mexico and abroad, bringing about ten million pesos to the municipality.
Traditional tunes include La marcha de Zacatecas, Juana Gallo and ¡Que chula es Puebla!
He fell madly in love with the corregidor's (a public official) daughter but was forbidden to marry her because of social class.
The legend has been interpreted as the hopes for equality among Mexico's social classes after its Independence as the daughter is of the elite and the bandit is poor.
Huejotzingo was named one of the four regions to receive evangelizing first, with legend stating that the first weddings and baptisms in the Catholic rite in Mexico occurred here.
Most of these belong to one of the seventeen battalions which represent of all of the municipality's major communities as well as the original four neighborhoods of the town of Huejotzingo.
[9] All soldier participants spend the four days in mock battles representing the Mexican side or the invading French army.
When not fighting, they visit graves of former battalion members in the morning, hold a mass parade at midday and petition homes and businesses for their main meal in the mid afternoon.
They dress as charros, which suits heavily decorated in sequins, a wig with the colors of the Mexican flag and a black cape.
[6] Representing the troops of General Zaragoza in the Battle of Puebla, they wear green, white and red paper streamers that hang off the back of their hats.
They also carry an animal skin, preferably that of a cacomixtle in honor of the indigenous goddess Camaxtli, who was the patron of the region.
They wear Spanish colonial style helmets made of black leather with the crest of Agustín de Iturbide, in remembrance of Mexico's independence.
[6][2] They are dressed with turbans or tall hats, silk clothing, and scimitars and with crescent moons and peacock feathers used as decorative elements.
The festival was made famous by painters Diego Rivera, Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin and Fernando Ramírez Osorio who painted scenes from it.
