College to present Guadalupe Folk Life and Lore program

Newton — Sussex County Community College will present Guadalupe Folk Life and Folklore an Saturday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sussex Bank Theater at the college. Xochiquetzal will offer a program of traditional folk dances from across Mexico. There will also be a reenactment of the meeting between the Virgin of Guadalupe and Juan Diego. Each year in December celebrations and processions take place throughout Mexico, weaving indigenous dances and traditions into the worship of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who is said to have miraculously appeared to the lowly peasant Juan Diego hundreds of years ago. The annual “Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe” has come to be known as the spiritual essence of Mexico, representing the fusion of Catholic Spain and indigenous Mexico. While inside the church, believers come to honor the miracle of the appearance of the Virgin, while outside of churches, throughout the country, people perform the traditional dances, the same ones their ancestors performed in honor of the gods of war, rain, and fire in the times before the Spanish conquerors. The public is invited to join Grupo Folklorico Mexicano de Xochiquetzal, Sussex County Community College, and the Northwest Jersey Folklife Project, to celebrate this important date in Mexican history. The cost of this program is $3. For more information call 973-300-2120.