Contrary to popular
belief, Santa’s House isn’t at the North Pole. That’s just silly – it’s too
cold there. Actually his house is in the small Mexican town of Tlalpujahua!
Tlalpujahua is just across the Mexico State – Michoacán state border, about a
half hour drive from La Jordana, the ex Marist formation house and now retreat
house.
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| The House of Santa Claus |
It is one of Mexico’s
“magic towns”, preserving colonial buildings around the plaza. Tlalpujahua
predates the Spanish conquest. The name in Nahuatl means “spongy earth” – a reference
to the soft soil it is built on.
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| La Plaza |
Gold and silver mines
were exploited by the Spaniards from 1551. Two churches were built – one for
the Spaniards and one for the Indians!
The mines failed
sometime in the 18th century and were reopened by English investors
a century later. They didn’t last long.
The principal church,
the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mt Carmel was mostly built in the 17th
century. A Franciscan convent of the same vintage is nearby.
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| The Interior of Our Lady of Mt Carmel - that's her above the altar, painted on an adobe wall. |
Oddly enough, the town
is now known for the various factories that make Christmas decorations. None of
your plastic Chinese decorations. These are glass and hand decorated – and
incredibly cheap! At one stage this small town was the worlds biggest producer
of glass Christmas baubles! And Santa’s house is in the middle of town!
The church seems to
have suffered somewhat from the same desire to decorate. The baroque interior
can only be described as “Mexican wedding cake” style. Oddly enough it doesn’t
really seem to be over the top in the context!
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| A close up of the Painting of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. She was removed from an older church which was destroyed in a fire. |
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| The flower and vegetable decoration on the ceiling. |
Across the valley is
the smaller township of Tlalpujahuilla. It’s a pretty ordinary town except for
the sanctuary of the Virgin of San Juan. It’s a huge church – about the size of
Wellington’s Cathedral of the Sacred Heart for such a small town. And that’s
due to the devotion to the miraculous statue of Our Lady of San Juan. The
church is massive – built in stone.
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| The front of Our Lady of San Juan, Tlalpujahuilla |
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| From the side. The square building at front is where devotional candles are burnt. |
The parish is
obviously geared to the annual pilgrimage for the feast day. The toilets are
industrial size and accessed by a pay turn style. I did wonder just how much
money the parish made out of the dunnies in contrast to donations from the
faithful!
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| The miraculous statue. |
Behind the main altar,
where the Statue of Our Lady is there is a room – and you can climb a
staircase where there’s a cloth stretched across the top. It forces you to
duck under – and it was only after doing this I noticed the signs that said
something like: “Be covered by Our Lady’s Mantel” with an arrow pointing up the
steps. I guess not something to be sneezed at. So I went around again!
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| Under the protection of Our Lady's Mantle |
Still, it shows the strength
of Mexican’s devotion to Mary. There are several other pilgrimage sites within
an hour’s drive of Tlalpujahuilla.
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| One way to get the turkey home! |
