Fiestas de Mayo continues north of Holguín

Photos: Archive

Procession and mass on the hill of Suspiro, where the parish of Jesús del Monte was consecrated in 1872, includes today's program at the Fiesta de Mayo, a week of popular celebration in San Marcos de Auras, named Floro Pérez since 1933.

About the three centuries of the town’s existence is the conference by the outstanding researcher Enrique Doimeadiós, this afternoon at the House of Culture, where an exhibition of liturgical objects of historical value will be opened to the public.

The festivity takes place from the first to the seventh of May, originating from the Spanish religious practice, linked to secular elements, and which has been celebrated since the first decades of the 20th century in that town in the coastal municipality of Gibara, north of Holguín.

Its program includes concerts, exhibitions of plastic arts, crafts and objects with historical value, dance and music presentations, literary activities and sports competitions, as well as commercial and gastronomic options around the Park.
The Flor de Mayo and Señor Mayo beauty contests stand out among the activities, as well as the panel on the typical sausages of Auras, a bicentennial gastronomic tradition from Asturias.

The studies refer that the Festival lasted three days: the first one was enjoyed the verbena; the second was the Dance of the Flowers, where women had to adorn themselves with flowers or carry them, and the third there was a mass, a procession through the streets and promises were paid in the church, one of the oldest in the province.

The celebration is part of the religious and popular events of Hispanic origin, which were historically celebrated in the province on this date, such as Fiesta de la Cruz de Mayo, held since the beginning of the 20th century in El Mocho and La Palma, municipality of "Rafael Freyre"; and the Altares de Cruz de Mayo, located in Holguín, Gibara and several eastern territories, dating from the 18th century, as well as the Romerías, which has become a youth festival.

According to Catholic historiography, presumably, on May 3, 326 AD, Elena, mother of Emperor Constantine, who established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, found the tree on which Jesus was crucified. For this reason, the Santoral collects the date as the Day of the Invention of the Holy Cross.

However, the Fiestas de Mayo are among the oldest and most popular of humanity, they were linked to the seasons and were inserted in a calendar of worship to nature and fertility rites, with which ancient man commemorated the rebirth of Life after the winter period.

With the arrival of Christianity, the old cults were syncretized with the new faith and the ceremonies of the spring equinox, and the summer solstice became new rites, studies report.