Basilica of Guadalupe will reopen for the celebrations of December 12

The Basilica of Guadalupe, which closed its doors in 2020 due to the pandemic, will resume the festivities on December 12 to receive some 4.2 million pilgrims, although with restrictions due to Covid-19.

The mayor of Mexico City and the Catholic Church They announced this Monday that the Marian temple, one of the most visited in the world, retakes the commemoration of the apparitions of the “dark virgin”, of which 490 years are fulfilled.

“The Basilica is going to be open,” he said at a press conference Salvador Martinez Avila, rector of the Basilica of Guadalupe.

Francisco Chíguil, mayor of the capital sector where the temple is located, explained that From December 10 to 12, the arrival of about 4.2 million believers is expected.

In 2020, the temple closed its doors to celebrations due to the pandemic to avoid crowds and thus further infections. Precisely in December 2020, Mexico was heading towards the second wave of Covid-19, which reached its maximum in January.

This year, the pilgrimage will be carried out with restrictions, such as wearing masks, trying to keep a distance and limiting the passage of the faithful through the temple to minutes.

It will also be forbidden to spend the night in the vicinity and a hostel that received pilgrims will remain closed.

The tradition is that the faithful wake up on December 12 before the Basilica to sing to the virgin the traditional Mexican melody “Las Mañanitas”, which is followed by different musical and dance groups in celebrations that lasted hours.

The mayor’s office and the church also call on pilgrims to go without children or elderly people and recommend that attendees have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Before the pandemic, according to Chíguil, the Basilica received up to 11 million pilgrims in these celebrations. Among the faithful there are usually many foreigners, especially from Latin American countries.

Following a third wave of Covid-19 in mid-2021, the figures have remained low, although in the last week five states in the north of the country were placed under preventive alert due to the increase in infections.

Mexico had 3.8 million infections and 293,897 deaths as of Sunday, according to official figures.