Semana Santa and Mexican Spring Break

Spring Break in Cabo San Lucas is like a series of waves:  first come the college students from Canada, then from the U.S., and finally from Mexico itself. The latter phenomenon is typically contemporaneous with Semana Santa – Holy Week, the week before Easter in the Catholic Church – a period in which not only students on mid-semester break, but often entire families take advantage of the holiday period to travel to popular beach destinations around the country.

For U.S and Canadian travelers, the important things to note about Semana Santa are the week-long closure of most banks and virtually all government offices, and of course the increased competition for accommodations of all kinds. Beaches are also much busier than usual. On the plus side, Semana Santa offers an interesting glimpse into the Catholic core of Mexican culture, and provides another good reason to visit the Los Cabos region’s lovely, historic churches.

Parroquia San Lucas Evangelista is the oldest church in Cabo San Lucas, dating to 1950, when a local school teacher named Amelia Wilkes – namesake of the plaza across the street – donated the land upon which it is constructed. There are several interesting features of this church. The bell in the bell tower dates to 1746, when it was consecrated to San Ignacio, and historical documents were placed in a bottle and built into one of the columns at the main entrance.

Parroquia San José has a much older history, its roots in the Jesuit mission built at what is now Plaza Misión (where the site is marked by a plaque) by Fr. Nicolas Tamaral in 1730. Tamaral was killed by the region’s indigenous inhabitants, the Pericú, after an ill-fated ban on polygamy in 1734. The mission closed in the 19th century, and Parroquia San José was built in 1840. Eight years later it played an integral role in the Siege of San José del Cabo during the Mexican-American War. A hurricane badly damaged the church in 1918, and it was not fully restored until 1940. Among its most famous features is the tile mosaic above the main entrance depicting the death of Tamaral.

This year, Semana Santa begins on Sunday, April 9, and culminates with Easter Sunday the following week, on April 16. Both Parroquia San Lucas Evangelista and Parroquia San José offer bilingual masses at noon on each of these Sundays.

Photo of Parroquia San José courtesy of Thelmadatter.