In early December, millions of pilgrims from around the world flock to Mexico City to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in celebration of her feast day. The basilica is the one of the world’s most visited and beloved religious venues.
A statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe stands next to sleeping pilgrims as they wait for mass outside of the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Dec. 12, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans are making the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, also known as La Morenita, is Mexico's most popular religious and cultural image.
For many pilgrims, their journey to the site is an expression of gratitude for miracles that they believe the Virgin brought into their lives. Around the basilica, some people light candles while praying in silence. Some kneel and weep. Others carry statues of the Virgin in their arms as they receive a priest’s blessing.Among the first-time pilgrims this year was Yamilleth Fuente, who entered the basilica wearing a yellow scarf decorated with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
For the Catholic Church, the image of the Virgin is a miracle itself – dating to a cold December dawn in 1531 when Juan Diego was walking near the Tepeyac Hill. Some academics have said that the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe intertwines Indigenous and Catholic beliefs, though the Catholic Church rejects this theory. At the foot of the hill that today accommodates the basilica was a temple for the goddess Coatlicue Tonantzin, and the date of the apparition coincided with an Indigenous festival.
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