Deliver us evil

On Holy Saturday (Sábado de Gloria), Mexicans remember that ultimate sell-out, snitch and all round baddy, Judas. The Bible says that Judas went out and hanged himself after ratting out Jesus, and presumably did that the day after Jesus was crucified. So… while the Spanish sometimes still put up very realistic (and gruesome) representations of a hanged man, the Mexicans (and other Latins), who like to mix and match their religious images anyway, give Judas horns and a tail, and you literally “beat the devil” before he’s set ablaze. Yeah, it’s got it’s religious side (as in “Deliver us from evil”), but “evil” takes many forms in our world, and with so many evils in this world, it’s hard to pick just one.

Besides, you can’t really defeat evil, but you can mock it. And mockery is what the Judas burning is all about. And, it’s an excuse to drink beer and party while sorta-kinda acting religious.

The Judas at the left, from Monterrey, is dressed as a bureaucrat from the Water and Sewage Company, which isn’t real popular in this fellow’s neighborhood.

I was at an Nahuatl-language Judas burning where one Judas was shooting up, and another was labeled as the AIDS virus. In Mexico City, Uncle Sam (clutching his ill-got gains) is popular, as is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Felipe Calderon and Esther Elba Gordillo. Global Warming Judas is a good seller this year.

One Judas-maker (there’s an artisan for every popular art form, and the Judases are basically pinatas, without candy) had an order this year for a wife-beating Judas. Who after being beaten (by wives) this Judas will, like the many Judi (Judases?) be set ablaze to cheers and jeers.