Pilgrims arrive to Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City

The Office of Public Security implements safety measures in main streets and neighboring road accesses to Mexico City amid the 485 Anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico City’s Basilica, next Monday.

Over seven million people are expected in this year’s celebrations of December 12, for which the Safety Program “Pilgrim’s Mission 2016” has already been implemented by the Office of Public Security of Mexico City, with the display of 3 thousand police officers on site.

Pilgrims have already arrived into Mexico City and sing traditional devotional chants along their way to the Patroness of the Americas: “In a beautiful morning, she descended from heavens, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, descended to Tepeyac’s hill”.

Pilgrims counted by millions, visit Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Basilica to repay a favor or “manda” given by the most important advocacy of Virgin Mary in Mexico and Latin America, while others come and pray to ask for the full recovery of their health or to vow the for the removal of a habit or a vice. The rest of them, simply come to pay their respects to the image of the Tepeyac’s Virgin, “La Guadalupana”.

Mexican catholic tradition establishes that in 1531,Our Lady of Guadalupe’s revealed herself, through a radiant apparition, to local 57-year-old, Aztec Indian, Juan Diego, in the Tepeyac’s hill and requested to have a temple built where the Aztec people could experience her compassion.

This year marks the 485 Anniversary of the apparition of “La Guadalupana” in the Tepeyac’s hill, in the Mexican Catholic tradition, and millions of people from Mexico and Latin America arrive into Mexico City’s Basilica to show their devotion to the image of the Brown Virgin or “Virgen Morena”.

“I come to pray for the well-being of my children, for the health of my parents and for my husband’s work; each year we make “the sacrifice” to come and, thank God, each year goes well for all of us”, says yearly pilgrim Guadalupe, who takes a three day journey from a small village in Veracruz to Mexico City.