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marian celebrations     MarianCelebrations attheTurnoftheMillennium chapter nine    As the twentieth century has drawn to a close and the twenty-first has begun, Marian devotion continues as strong as ever. Celebrations of theVirgin’s majesty are widespread, especially in Spain, Italy, and Latin America but also in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States and among other populations elsewhere in the world. The connection between the celebrations of Mary and issues of identity are just as clear as they were in the time of Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Hernán Cortés; these identities may be national, local, or highly personal.The rituals are beautiful and affecting, even for those who are not personally devoted to theVirgin in one or another of her advocations. I have been present for four of these in recent years: Corpus Christi in Cuzco, Peru, in  and ; Semana Santa in Seville, Spain, in ; and the Día de Guadalupe in Mexico City in . In these ceremonies I have observed the intense identification of the crowd with the figures of Mary; the shared understanding that she is a person and that she is personally present within the image, despite what the theology dictates; and the interaction between the observant, believing crowd and Our Lady. There are a number of important points to make about these ceremonies. First of all, they are popular in several senses: they are largely organized by the people of those communities, not exclusively and sometimes not even primarily by the hierarchical Church; they are heavily attended; they are enjoyed and are meant to be enjoyed, in that they are arresting and psychologically satisfying spectacles . Moreover, they are highly engaging, the living participants and spectators interacting with the images of this uniquely revered human being. Further , despite their various ostensible purposes, they are all heavily focused on  ,       theVirgin Mary herself.The reason for this emphasis is evident in Guadalupe’s Day but certainly not obvious for Corpus Christi, which is supposed to be centered around the Eucharist, or for Semana Santa, which recounts Christ’s passion and resurrection. However, of the fifteen images in Cuzco’s recent Corpus Christi celebrations, five are of Santa María, and one is of her mother, Santa Anna, with the baby Mary in her arms. Further, the five major images of Mary are located at the end of the procession around the Plaza de Armas; one would expect the Eucharist to take that pride of place. However, members of the crowd around the Plaza freely offer the information that in earlier years when the images of Mary came at the beginning, the crowd departed after they had appeared, leaving the Eucharist and its attendant priests to march around the empty square. During Semana Santa in Seville, virtually every brotherhood carries an image of theVirgin. It almost always comes at the very end of the brotherhood’s procession through the streets of Seville, and it is the Virgin’s appearance that evokes the most emotional response from the crowd. Probably the reason for having her come last is the same as in Cuzco—some people would leave otherwise—but perhaps there are additional appeals. Her suffering, as the Mother of the martyred Christ, is deeply intense and deeply understandable to the crowd. Her appearance is a dramatic ending, and in my opinion a life-affirming one, to the message of sorrow and sacrifice that has preceded it.TheVirgin becomes the symbol of hope, redemption, life, and joy—the Mother who sees her child overcome death. Yet another possibility is reflected in the  Rule Book of the Confraternity of Jesus the Nazarene and the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. It deemed that in every Good Friday procession, the members would carry images of Christ and Our Lady through the streets of Seville, so that by “carrying Jesus Christ as captain before our eyes, and our backs protected by his divine mother, we will be free of the demon in this procession.” Thus, the power and protection of Mary are present at the location where humans are most vulnerable—behind their backs. These rituals have much in common, but they are greatly different in form. Corpus Christi in Cuzco is a movable feast and takes place, as a rule, in June. It initially was a Spanish replacement for the Inka ceremony of Inti Raymi, at which the mallquis (mummies) of the deceased rulers and their wives were brought into the sacred space in Cuzco that is now...

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