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Mexico Local Customs
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Mexico Local Customs

Learn the local customs of Mexico. Tips and photos posted by real travelers and Mexico locals.
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Cenotes in Yucatan
  • Tip Rating:
    • nepalgoods
  • By nepalgoods on February 26, 2004
  • Mexico Page by nepalgoods
    • Chichen Itza Sacred Well - Mexico
    Chichen Itza Sacred Well
    by nepalgoods
    The Mayans consider these 'sinkholes' sacred and gifted by the gods. Their name for them is dzonot. To the Spanish ear, this word was registered as cenote. Many ancient ceramic and precious stone pieces have been found in cenotes, suggesting that ceremonial offerings were made to them. It is common to find skeletal remains of animals and humans in the water-filled underground cave systems of the area. Some are found great distances away from cenote openings, hinting of the subterranean world that existed before the passageways flooded as the sea settled near its present level some 16,000 years ago.

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    Dance of the Viejecitos
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    • madamx
  • By madamx on January 13, 2007
  • Mexico Page by madamx
    • Mexico Local Customs
    by madamx
    We got lucky and managed to see a performance of the Viejecitos (Little Old Men). This is a dance said to have been invented by the local Purepecha during the early colonial period to mock the Spanish colonists.

    The dancers were boys from about 6-12 years old, and they wore pink wrinkly masks, plus had on hard-soled wooden sandals, which they use to make a lot of noise stumbling around, as the names suggests, like clumsy old men.

    You can usually see performances of the Viejecitos at the major hotels, and on weekends at the Casa de los Once Patios, around noon.

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    Rebozos
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    • madamx
  • Updated By madamx on January 13, 2007
  • Mexico Page by madamx
    • Mexico Local Customs
    by madamx
    Rebozos semed part of life in the Mexican countryside and it seemed most females wore one. They use it for warmth, to accessorize, and even to carry their babies on their backs as well. You can get rebozos ranging from very expensive at some of the craft shops, to inexpensive at the local markets.

    I bought mine at the local markets, I guess their version of the fake pashmina. They are much better quality and more distinctive than fake pashminas and just as cheap; plus they're great souveniers to buy for people back home.

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    Carry Small Bills
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    • madamx
  • By madamx on January 5, 2007
  • Mexico Page by madamx
    • When carrying pesos, make sure you have plenty of small bills. It seems that no one has change or if any, very little. It doesn't make sense, as they issue large bills, so someone must use them! And if everyone has small bills, someone must have change ... if I think about it too much, it drives me crazy, so trust me, carry lots of small bills and change.

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    The nation's soul
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    • TheWanderingCamel
  • Updated By TheWanderingCamel on May 1, 2006
  • Mexico Page by TheWanderingCamel
    • Revered image - Mexico
    Revered image
    by TheWanderingCamel,
    2 more photos
    The shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is held dear in the heart of all of Catholic America, but it is especially important and revered in Mexico itself. The story of how the Virgin appeared to a poor Indian boy is known and loved by all devout Mexicans and they have come in their millions in the 470 years since then to see the cloak, miraculously imprinted with the Virgin's image, that confims the miracle, and to pray at the shrine - many of them making the last part of their journey on their knees, a laborious progression around and across the vast courtyard in front of the basilca that is painful to watch, let alone perform.

    When the original church, begun in 1521 and constantly added to and aggrandised over the succeeding centuries, became both too small and too unsafe (subsidence is part of the problem, as it is at the Metropolitan Cathedral) to be used so hard, the precious image was moved to a striking new church that can accommodate 10,000. Juan Diego's cloak is positioned high on a wall where it can be seen from all points of the basilica. For a closer look, you must join the queue on a moving walkway that carries a constant stream of people along in a never-ending procession of the faithful and the curious.

    The Basilica is thought to be second only to St Peter's in Rome for its importance as a Catholic place of pilgrimage. It is undoubtedly the most visited shrine in all the Americas.

    leyle

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  • Website: http://www.sancta.org/
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    Calaveras and El Dia de los Muertos
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    • lamentforicarus
  • By lamentforicarus on April 29, 2004
  • Mexico Page by lamentforicarus
    • Mexico Local Customs
    by lamentforicarus
    Calaveras de azucar (sugar skulls) are found in markets throughout Mexico during the Day of the Dead. The skull is usually a sugar cast decorated with colorful frosting and foil. The calavera is usually adorned with the name of a living child on its forehead, and is given to young boys and girls as a way of creating a comfortable awareness of death as an inevitable part of life.

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    Folk Art and Toys of El Dia de los Muertos
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    • lamentforicarus
  • Updated By lamentforicarus on May 10, 2004
  • Mexico Page by lamentforicarus

    • "Festive" skeletons
    by lamentforicarus
    Skeleton figures are common toys among young children during El Dia de los Muertos. Again, these toys are made to develop a child's understanding of death not as a morbid end to life, but as a naturally occuring transcendence from one world to the next. These toys have evolved into folk artwork found everywhere throughout Mexico. Scenes of skeletons acting out everyday "life" (such as singing, buying foods at a market, driving a bus, even playing football or baseball) illustrate the Mexican approach to death.

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    Colourful Mayan dresses
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    • micas_pt
  • By micas_pt on November 13, 2003
  • Mexico Page by micas_pt
    • Mexico Local Customs
    by micas_pt
    For several times I had the opportunity of watching women dressed in traditional Mayan costume. It's a large dress, made of plain cotton fabric (I saw white fabric) and then it has colourful embroidery at the bottom of the dress and neck. The embroideries I saw were all like big colourful flowers.

    I think that they no longer wear those dresses in their daily life, but they show them when tourists are around. This photo was taken on a little "farm" where typical animals from jungle were shown, as well as some rituals they performed periodically. Curiously some young men were wearing mobile phones, a "rather traditional" Mayan gadget, … :-)

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    Iguanas
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    • micas_pt
  • By micas_pt on November 13, 2003
  • Mexico Page by micas_pt
    • Mexico Local Customs
    by micas_pt
    I think iguanas are local customs! They were everywhere i went, … beach, hotel gardens, ruins, … everywhere!! They are lazy, quiet animals, that didn't seem to be afraid of humans. But i guess they were bored of being photographed so many times; poor them, tourists do behave like paparazzi, … and even try to feed them!

    Only once did iguanas impress me and that was when i saw 2 of them fighting, … it sure looked quiet serious and somewhat frightening how those apparently quiet animals became so violent to each other.

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    Spicy and tasty food
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    • micas_pt
  • By micas_pt on November 14, 2003
  • Mexico Page by micas_pt
    • Mexico Local Customs
    by micas_pt
    Mexican food is tasty and varied. Some plates are spicy, even considered "hot", so those who enjoy this kind of food should be happy. But for everyone else who doesn't enjoy spicy there's also plenty of choice, so don't worry.

    Seafood is very good in Mexico and my favourite seafood plate was one made with shrimp in a sweet and sour sauce with chilli and corn. Quiet tasty!! Corn and chili are commonly used in composition of food giving a different (but tasty) flavour to meat or fish. I've also had quiet good fresh fish, as well as grilled meat.

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