Holy Cross Day

Origins

The festival of the Cross of May has its antecedents in the pre-Christian celebration known as May Festival (either Palo de Mayo, from English maypole), which commemorated the middle time of spring by worshipping nature. In particular, it was celebrated by decorating a tree or erecting a trunk or totem on which ornaments or flowers were placed, while ritual dances were performed and songs or recitations were made. With the arrival of Christianity, this festival was adapted to the new faith, replacing the totem with the Christian cross. In some countries, the festivities of the May Cross and the May Pole are maintained in parallel.

Another interpretation seems to have its origin in the discovery by Saint Helena of the cross on which Christ died. The story tells how the Emperor Constantine I the Great, in the sixth year of his reign, faced the barbarians on the banks of the Danube, in a battle whose victory was believed impossible due to the size of the enemy army.

Currently, the Christian liturgy has eliminated this feast from its calendar, unifying it with the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated on September 14, a feast of similar origin.

In Mexico

La celebración de la Santa Cruz inicia en los albores del siglo XVI, cuando el capitán Juan de Grijalba nombró “Isla de la Santa Cruz” a la isla de Acuzamil o Cozumel de Quintan Roo. En México, el 3 de mayo se delebra  “El Día del albañil” y coincide con la mecionada celebración del día de la Santa Cruz por este motivo, los albañiles desde un día antes construyen su cruz de los mismos desechos de la obra para colocarla en la parte superior y más alta de la construcción.

The celebration begins with the placement of a cross, decorated with flowers and paper, in a high and visible part of the construction (work). Firecrackers are lit and it continues with a party with typical regional food, beer, tequila, mezcal, and other derivatives of fermentation in the place where the work is taking place.

Y así, entre cal, arena, andamios, varillas, alambre, vigas, bultos de cemento, los albañiles festejan el día en que el grito mezcla maestro calla, la cuchara y la plomada la dejan por un bote de cerveza “porque esa es la tradición”.

Although it is a very old celebration, which commemorates the Cross on which Christ made his greatest sacrifice and which recalls his triumph over death through his resurrection, the cross also has a second meaning, since it is related to an ancient indigenous belief.

Before the Conquest, the Mesoamerican indigenous people related the cross to the cardinal directions of the indigenous cosmography: north, south, east, west and center, which graphically formed the cross.

With the arrival of the Spanish, this evocation was eradicated and replaced by the religious symbolism of the Holy Cross.

Since then, the celebration of this festival was established with the construction of houses, churches, convents, and other buildings with indigenous labor.