Fiesta de las Cruces


The Fiesta de las Cruces or Cruz de Mayo is a holiday celebrated on 3 May in many parts of Spain and Hispanic America.

Origins

Religiously, the festival is rooted in the legendary search by the Byzantine Empress Saint Helena for the cross on which Jesus died, but the popular traditions connected to the festival certainly trace back to pagan traditions brought to Spain by the Roman Empire.
The legend is that Emperor Constantine I, in the sixth year of his reign, confronted the barbarians on the banks of the Danube to christianity, in a battle where victory was believed to be impossible because of the great size of the enemy army. One night, Constantine had a vision of a cross in the sky, and by it the words "In hoc signo vincis". The emperor had a cross made and put it at the front of his army, which won an easy victory over the enemy multitude. On returning to the city and learning the significance of the cross, Constantine was baptized as a Christian and gave orders to construct Christian churches. He sent his mother, Saint Helena, to Jerusalem in search of the True Cross, the cross on which Jesus died. Once there, Helena summoned the wisest priests to aid in her attempt to find the cross. On Calvary hill, traditionally considered the site of Jesus's crucifixion, she found three bloody logs hidden. In order to discover which was the True Cross, she placed the logs one by one over sick people, and even dead people, who were cured or resuscitated at the touch of the True Cross. The veneration of the True Cross, and the use of pieces of the True Cross as relics, begins at this time. Saint Helena died praying for all believers in Christ to celebrate the commemoration of the day the Cross was found.

Places where the holiday is celebrated

The "Fiesta de las Cruces" is celebrated in numerous places in Spain and Hispanoamerica.

Spain

Various groups of people — usually affiliated with the Hermandades, the religious brotherhoods that organize the Easter Week processions — come together to decorate a tall cross with flowers.
They choose a picturesque square or street and decorate the area around the cross with typical and traditional items: a guitar, an embroidered shawl, old earthenware pots, and an old-fashioned sewing machine. For the cross of the Hermandad de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Queen of the Sea, they decorate it fishing nets and tackle. For San Isidro, the Ploughman Saint, they display crops and traditional foodstuffs.
They set out these beautiful items, redolent of the past and the town's traditions, creating an artistic display that everyone comes to admire.
Although it is usually one of the Brotherhoods that decorates the crosses, it can also be a group of friends and neighbours, a youth group, or a charity who come together to create these lovely displays.
File:Procesiónvirgen.jpg|thumb|Procession of the Virgin, Cruz de Mayo, Sama de Grado, Asturias, Spain.
File:cruzcf2.png|thumb|Cross of the Hermandad de la Cruz de la Calle La Fuente. Rociana del Condado, Province of Huelva.

Notable Celebrations

The Departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Quindío, and Risaralda, and the municipality of Funza, diocese of Facatativá, have a large population of Basque descent, who carry on the tradition of the Día de la Santa Cruz or Día de los Mil Jesuses on 3 May. People speak the name of Jesus one thousand times, and believe this will protect them through the coming year.

Guatemala

Most of Guatemala celebrates the Fiesta de las Cruces largely in a symbolic and respectful manner, with colorful processions.
The construction equipment and materials retailer FFACSA, one of Guatemala's leading businesses, sponsors a large and less traditional celebration in Chimaltenango Department. That celebration begins at 6 p.m. on 2 May with a celebration of the eucharist in honor of the Holy Cross. On 3 May people begin to gather at 3 a.m. and parade through the streets of various municipalities of the department, after which there are various sporting activities. At noon, roughly 3,000 construction workers gather for lunch at FFACSA's various branch offices and at their central site in Chimaltenango. After lunch there are raffles, with prizes such as motorcycles, bicycles, televisions, DVD players, and household appliances. At 4 p.m. there is an open-air concert at the park in the center of Chimaltenango, again with raffles and prizes, and from 7 p.m. there are fireworks competitions.

Mexico

In Mexico, the celebration of the Holy Cross began at the dawn of the 16th century, when captain Juan de Grijalva gave the name Isla de la Santa Cruz to the island now known as Cozumel, Quintana Roo. The holiday is celebrated in Mexico mainly by guilds and unions involved in construction. A cross adorned with flowers and paper is placed in a high position on a building in the process of construction. The workers then celebrate with local cuisine and alcoholic beverages such as tequila, mezcal, and local beer.