If you wish you can read more about this beautiful night. I've blogged about Viernes de Dolores before here and here and here.
This image was made last year. I had just made another image of this altar without any people in it. Then I saw the shoe on the left and the little boy walked into the right-hand side. I hit the shutter button. What I had not seen until I downloaded the file was the little face looking under the curtain on the left. At first I thought that the image without the boy was the best of the two but one of the things that photographers find is that it is a good thing to give some time between making images and choosing and finishing images. Now I think this is the better image. I've printed this image large on 17x22 paper. You really see a lot more in the print than you do on the monitor.
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The church was full although no service was being conducted. Everyone was kneeling in prayer. The smell of the wilting bouquets and burning candles was heavy, almost like liquid. The spiritual feeling was overwhelming. I sat down and let the moment flood into my senses. Some of the people had stopped in from their daily routines and some appeared to have come a long way to pray to Senor de la Columna. There was a long line of people, mostly women, waiting to go to confession. The church was quiet, dark and solemn.
Outside the church the sun was brilliant and the street was filling up with temporary tiendas. One one side of the street the tiendas were full of religious objects and on the other side of the street the tiendas were preparing food for the pilgrims who would accompany El Senor de la Columna back to Atotonilco.
This Thursday is known as Holy Thursday and it commemorates when Jesus had the Last Supper with his disciples, when he washed the feet of his disciples, when Judas betrayed him, and when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. All of the churches were open except the Parroquia. Ned and I, along with the Mexicans were out visiting each of the beautifully decorated churches. Some of the churches had removed benches to make room for the throngs of visitors. The church along the side of the Parroquia had cleared almost everything out so that all of the lanterns and saints, readied for the Good Friday procession, could be staged. Many people were in that church stopping at each saint to pray. However, all of the churches had a steady stream of people going through them. Many stopped to buy the tiny rolls of bread as a symbol of the Last Supper. 
Today I tried to take advantage of the difficult light and I was hoping that when I photographed into the light I would get a string of light reflections across the image. No string of reflections but I did get this light blub leaking light. And somehow having Jesus and the donkey squeezed in by the bus and the car just seems appropriate for San Miguel.
The next procession starts in Parque Juarez and comes down Sollano which is a fairly narrow street. The sun is still a strong side light which reflects off of the painted buildings and back on the procession. I decided to use narrow depth of field and try to isolate some faces in the procession.
The altars are very personal in each home as the home owner uses their own religious objects. Pre-hispanic symbols are incorporated in the altars such as grains and beans. All of the altars will have the tearful virgin and some will include Jesus on the cross. The creators of the altar will usual offer those who visit a fruit drink to symbolize the Virgin's tears. But more and more we are seeing small sorbets on a stick like a popsicle. In the Centro the altars are more elaborate and the crowds and lines are long. You may also see some very unique and antique santos. We like to stay in our Colonia to commemorate Viernes de Dolores.
The first altar was just across the street from us. The second was about two blocks away. This last one is just a few doors up from us, next door to the barbershop.
Here you are seeing the 'better' side of El Senor. His back shows the flogging that Jesus endured. His back is bloody and the ribs are exposed. Mexican Catholic symbolism is much more graphic and bloody than what you may be use to in the American Catholic church.
Sounded like a good explanation of what was happening but I wanted to know more and of course I wanted to check out the relics before they left my neighborhood church. Now I'm not sure whether the procession on my street was connected to San Antonio de Padua or not but Alfredo was right that big things were happening in San Miguel and in my neighborhood church.
Yesterday, the relics were carried from the San Francisco church through town and stopped at several of the churches. I didn't go into town for the procession but waited in my neighborhood for it to arrive in Colonia San Antonio. To read about the procession's march through the Centro before it reached our Colonia go to the 
After the stop at the San Antonio church the procession continued on to the Sports Stadium where at 6:00 PM there was to be a special mass. The next stop for the relics is Juventino Rosas.
We went out on the street and I had the camera. By now the light is really getting low and people are turning on their outside Christmas lights.
At one house down the street this beautiful altar is set up and the family keeps going to the corner looking up Vergel to see if the procession is approaching. Finally a little after 7:00 the procession arrives at the bottom of our street. It is a full dress procession with lots of altar boys, incense and two priests.
There is a short ceremony at the altar on our street and then they come on up the street. As soon as the procession has passed by, everyone takes down their decorations and the street is quiet again. It is over and I still don't know what it was all about.
