We love our saints here in San Miguel de Allende. On this particular night we celebrated La Alborada (The Dawn), in honor of Saint Michael the Archangel, our town’s patron saint. We just missed the 100th anniversary celebration last year, and after seeing the 101st I can only imagine the absolute madness that must have taken place at 100.

This is a celebration that goes all night, culminating with the grand finale at 4 a.m. Setting the alarm clock for 2:30 and dragging myself out the door, alone in my quest, took a monumental effort.

There was a big crowd, though it was a bit smaller than the Independence Day crowd a couple weeks earlier. Honestly, most of the hard core partiers had thrown in the towel and gone home by this point.

It was pretty chill when I first arrived.

But almost instantly the madness began. The fireworks symbolize Saint Michael’s victory over darkness, and of good over evil, as it is believed that Saint Michael led the angels in the battle against Satan. So, launching from the front steps of the cathedral came not hundreds, but thousands of fire bombs over the next hour. Out front of the church the wildest in the crowd danced amongst the screaming balls of fire that exploded all around them. There is absolutely no way that appendages were not lost on this night.

Tequila was flowing.

Every so often one would explode early, or maybe only half of it would explode, and it would alter course and shoot off sideways into the main crowd, just a ball of fire that would explode far louder than any M-80 of my childhood.

At the same time, across the plaza, “normal” fireworks were constantly being launched. These were the more traditional Mexican bottle rockets, and sparkly explosions.

In this one you can see the size of the projectile packed with explosives.

It really was a beautiful scene. Even if you didn’t know what was going on, you would have guessed it was some sort of battle against Satan.

Everything was happening directly overhead. Bottle rocket sticks rained down, usually with some flaming paper still alight. People were constantly swatting other people on the back to put out small fires.

The fire bombing stopped after a full hour’s bombardment.

The cobblestone sidewalk out front of the cathedral, completely buried.

Victory.

The triumph of light over darkness, I suppose. That was an incredible show. I consider San Miguel a small town, and yet everything they do is done full tilt. And everything here revolves around the church, and in particular, around the beautiful Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel.

Headed home, and back to bed.

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