By Fernando Soria
On February 2 of each year Candelaria is celebrated which commemorates the purification of the Virgin Mary 40 days after childbirth and the presentation of the child Jesus to the Church.
One of the founders of the Candelaria fair was Bruno Galicia Barrera, originally from San Gregorio Atlapulco and the Xochimilco mayor’s office in Mexico City, who came to San Miguel de Allende in the 1950s to sell plants and flowers. He had his stall at the corner of Juárez and San Francisco on the sidewalk of the Temple and later, together with his wife María Gómez Rodríguez, they increased their sale of plants and flowers.
At the beginning of the 1960s, in San Miguel de Allende’s Jardin, an exchange of plants bought from people’s gardens was held on February 2 where gardeners could find plants and cuttings. As time went on, flowering plants like geraniums, sweet potatoes, and chayotes were added but it was just on that one day.
Then, around 1970, they were able to carry out the fair for a whole week. More and more horticulturists were invited so some had to set up their stalls in the atrium of the Parroquia of San Miguel Arcángel, since the Jardin was not big enough—which is why they moved to what was the Civic Plaza, today the Old Plaza de Armas. But fewer people attended so they suggested moving to Parque Benito Juárez around 1992.
In 2010, the vigil was held for the first time since previously only the blessing of the seeds was carried out.
