Hispanic community celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe

Since last Monday, December 11th a huge congregation of Hispanic believers have been gathering in different local churches to celebrate the anniversary of the Virgin of Guadalupe, best known as La Guadalupana.

The festivities took place at 9:00 pm at Saint Thomas More at 27th and 129th East Avenue and St. Francis Xavier – 3rd and Admiral, which is the official sanctuary of La Guadalupana in the city of Tulsa.

The festivities started with different night services and ended with a variety of traditions, that included mariachi singing of Las Mañanitas by midnight.

On Tuesday the 12th, hundreds of believers were standing still for the celebrations that keep on going. A group of dancing mariachis was part of the festivities, and hundreds gathered to watch, pray, and show thanks.

La Guadalupana is one of the main Mexican saints, and this year the Hispanic community commem- orates the 486th year of the first apparition of the virgin on Tepeyac mountain.

In the year 1531 Juan Diego, a local Indian, was walking to Mexico City to learn catechism when he heard a voice calling him by his name, and it was then when he saw a woman with a dress that shined like the sun.

The woman said, “I’m the virgin Mary, mother of the true God,” and then she asked him to build a temple in that place. As proof she gave Diego roses from Castilla and an image imprinted on Diego’s cloth.

Since that day the feast of La Guadalupana has become one of the main events in Latin Christianity, a celebration that takes place in the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City every year with more than eight thousands souls who gather on Mexican soil to praise and share. (La Semana)