Friday before Palm Sunday
Virgen de Dolores,
Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico
In the Spanish-speaking world, the Friday before Palm Sunday is Viernes de Dolores, Friday of Sorrows, when Our Lady of Sorrows is often remembered. Since 1885, the city of Guanajuato in central Mexico has marked this day in a beautiful, grassroots way. In the houses and mines, people erect altars to the Virgin of Sorrows, adorned with candles, flowers, and decorative foods. At dawn, men of the city gather in the Union Garden to give flowers to the women. All day there is music, food, celebration; the Day of Sorrows here is the Day of Flowers.
Sources:
 | www.guanajuatocapital.com (photos) |
| "Comunicados," Guanajuato Capital, www.guanajuatocapital.gob.mx |
Also commemorated this date:
| Our Lady of Compassion, Roman Catholic Church (before 1969) |
| Schmerzensmutter, Bad Rippoldsau, Freudenstadt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (Sorrowful Mother) |
| Madonna Addolorata, Dossena, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy (Sorrowful Madonna). Madunù de Dosena procession. |
| Maria Santissima Addolorata, Licata, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy (Most Holy Sorrowful Mary). Festa; procession. |
| Addolorata, Maglie, Lecce, Apulia, Italy. Fair. Procession Good Friday. |
| Addolorata, Palese, Bari, Apulia, Italy. Procession. |
| Addolorata, Minervino Murge, Bari, Apulia, Italy. Procession. |
| Sopulingosios atvaizdas, Kaunas, Kaunas, Lithuania (Our Lady of Sorrows). Solemn mass in Cathedral, where Mary is depicted in a Pietà painting c1600. |
| Siete Dolores de Nuestra Señora, Mexico City, Mexico, Xochimilco district (Seven Sorrows of Our Lady). The "Flor más Bella del Ejido" (most beautiful flower of the field), a secular beauty pageant reflecting pre-Columbian flower goddess traditions, coincides with Catholic commemoration of Our Lady's sorrows. |
| Virgen de la Carrodilla, Estadilla, Huesca, Aragon, Spain. Romería to mountain shrine at apparition site. Fiesta Sunday after Easter. |
| Mare de Déu dels Dolors, Besalú, Girona, Catalonia, Spain (Sorrowful Mother of God). Mass, night procession. |
| Siete Dolores de María, Madrid, Madrid, Spain (Seven Sorrows of Mary). Also September 15. |
| María Santísima del Socorro, Alcalá de Guadaíra, Sevilla, Andalucía, Spain (St. Mary of Help). Statue by Sebastián Santos Rojas blessed, 1940. It processes on Good Friday. |
| Virgen de la Soledad, Paterna de Rivera, Cádiz, Andalucia, Spain (Virgin of Grief). Town's patronal fiesta: presentation of babies born in past year; procession. |
| Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, St. Francis of Assisi Church. |