Chilpancingo de los Bravo is the main municipality of the state of Guerrero in Mexico. With an area of approximately 566.8 square kilometers, it is the cradle of tourist, religious and cultural activity in the state of Guerrero.
It has a population of approximately 190,000 inhabitants. Like Mexico, Chilpancingo is a region proud of its roots, with traditions that fuse the best of that clash of cultures that began with the arrival of the Spanish.
Main traditions of Chilpancingo
Popular festivals
One of the most popular festivals in Chilpancingo is the traditional neighborhood festival, which are the first neighborhoods that were formed around the church of Santa Maria de la Asunción in the center of the city.
Each neighborhood has its own patron saint or virgin and on the date of their birthday the inhabitants of the neighborhoods gather after mass to participate in multicolored parades, filling the streets with dances, traditional state food fairs, rides, cultural events, thus mixing the divine and the pagan. Some of the employer dates are:
-The celebration of the Holy Cross that takes place on May 3.
-The day of San Antonio de Padua is celebrated on June 13.
-Santa Maria de la Asunción on August 15.
-The Virgin of the Nativity on September 8.
-The Chilpancingo fair from December 25 to January 7 in honor of the child Jesus.
The Paseo del Pendón
To celebrate the arrival of the child Jesus every second Sunday in December, the Paseo del Pendón is held, a celebration that begins the festivities of December in Chilpancingo.
Thousands of dancers take to the streets to celebrate the birth of the child God, with typical traditional costumes from each neighborhood.
At the beginning of the procession, a woman on horseback carries the banner of the banner created by the artist Francisco Alarcón Tapia, a native of Chilpancingo.
The procession concludes after 8 hours with another fascinating tradition called the porrazo del tigre.
The Tiger Strike
In Chilpancingo the neighborhoods choose each year the men who dressed as tigers will represent them in the bludgeon.
The chosen men meet in the bullring after the end of the ride of the banner and measure their strength in simulated fights.
This tradition was born as a way of remembering the fights that formed between the neighborhoods due to the struggles for land tenure.
Pozole Festival
This Mexican celebration is a whole party that is celebrated on November 2 to honor the dead.
It is a day where families create altars with colorful flowers, candies, the deceased's favorite dishes, remembering and celebrating life.
This custom has its roots in the Mexican Mesoamerican era with the Aztecs and Mayans.