CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



129 



tamales of black corn mixed with layers of 

 boiled beans milled on the metate. 



MINOR FIESTAS 



A number of calendrical church affairs re- 

 ceive minor attention. The day of San Juan, 

 June 24, boys ride about the streets on horse- 

 back. Girls fasten live pigeons with cords, and 

 men of the family raise and lower them from 

 the housetops. The boys try to catch the 

 pigeons. If they succeed and the pigeon sur- 

 vives, they take it home. If pigeons are not 

 available, chickens of similar size are used. 

 Christmas, New Year's, and the Day of Kings 

 also receive special attention. As these func- 

 tions are carried on by cargueros or mayor- 

 domos, their description is left until later. The 

 Day of the Dead is also in some measure a 

 community celebration. As has been noted, 

 the municipio requires the young men to clean 

 up the cemetery for this occasion. The actual 

 ceremonies, however, are Individual and are 

 described in connection with the death rites. 



SECULAR FIESTAS 



A number of minor fiestas appear to be 

 celebrated which have no religious motivation 

 connected with the church. These are patri- 

 otic affairs and are not taken very seriously. 

 On May 5 there is a procession with the band. 

 The bells of the church are rung and cohetes 

 are fired. On September 16, Independence 

 Day, there are usually a parade, music, and 

 perhaps a speech or two. A great many people 

 get drunk over the week end, but there is little 

 formal celebration. In 1940 the Cheran band 

 went to Chilchota for the fiesta, and there was 

 even less celebration than usual. 



HOUSE-ROOFING FIESTA 



Although most private fiestas are described 

 elsewhere, the fiesta celebrating the roofing of 

 a house is described here because the data 

 on house construction have been published in 

 another paper (Beals, Carrasco, and McCorkle, 

 1944). A house-roofing fiesta is celebrated 

 whenever the shakes are put on a new house. 

 The following account describes the fiesta held 

 by Pedro Chavez. 



The house-roofing fiesta is virtually an obli- 

 gation on the part of the house owner. He is 



always assisted by various relatives, who also 

 put pressure on him to hold the event. For 

 the Chavez fiesta one of the wife's cousins pro- 

 vided the music. A relative of the husband 

 provided atole; other relatives of the husband 

 supplied charanda or aguardiente, as did one of 

 the compadres of the husband. 



A day or two before the fiesta, the house 

 owner gives cigarettes and matches to the 

 master carpenter. The latter offers cigarettes 

 to various relatives and compadres who agree 

 to come and help with the roofing. During the 

 actual work, the relatives of the house owner 

 hand up shakes and nails to the workmen but 

 do not put any shakes in place. The shakes 

 are put in place and nailed by the master car- 

 penter and his relatives and compadres. 



In the morning of the house-roofing day, two 

 cohetes are fired to notify people that the fiesta 

 is to take place. The guests assemble in the 

 late forenoon. The men go to work at the 

 roofing ; the wife's female relatives assist in the 

 cooking. When the roofing is nearly finished, 

 charanda is circulated among the workmen. 

 The women also make an , arch with flowers. 

 This is placed over a cross placed on the ridge 

 pole when the roof is finished. The relatives 

 and helpers now eat, the men eating first. 

 Compadres of the husband assist in the serving, 

 the host merely supervising. The men sit on 

 two long logs, and baskets of tortillas, dishes of 

 salt, baskets of tamales, and jars of water are 

 placed on the ground between the two logs. 

 Each man is served a bowl of 5uripo, beef stew 

 with cabbage and chile (pi. 7, upper left) . After 

 the men have finished, the small boys are fed 

 in the same way. The women eat in the part 

 of the yard where cooking is going on. 



After the meal was over in the fiesta ob- 

 served, the musicians (a stringed orchestra) 

 arrived. They should have arrived before the 

 meal, but the cellist was sick and it was neces- 

 sary to send to Nahuatzen for another, who 

 was late in arriving. The musicians are served 

 before they begin to play. The women relatives 

 of the host now bring fruit, which they present 

 to the female relatives of the wife. Everyone 

 is then served a bowl of black atole and a 

 piece of bread. The female relatives of the 

 master carpenter now arrive. They are seated 

 on a mat near the space cleared for dancing, 



