Today was the main event for San Miguel’s beloved patron saint: more parades, more fireworks, more dancing, all on a grander scale than on preceding days. Dozens of indigenous groups descended on the centro in dazzling costumes. Aztec dancers with huge sprays of pheasant feathers bouncing from their headdresses; strange goatlike devils with long wagging tongues; small children in animal skins with painted faces; tableaus on flatbed trucks that portrayed the story of the Spanish conquest. Add the street vendors selling roasted corn and cups of fresh fruit, plus the crowds of Mexican families who arrived in San Miguel to celebrate the holiday, and the scene was truly a festival of the senses. It lasted all day and into the night.

One of the most impressive sights of the festival celebration is the ancient tradition of the voladores. The pole is very tall — 75 feet would be a conservative estimate — and one man plays a bamboo flute and drums on an impossibly tiny perch on the pole’s tip (no safety nets here, folks). Four other men make a breathtaking upside-down descent to the pavement by swinging on ropes tied around their waists, making 13 revolutions each (equalling 52, the number of weeks in the year) on the way down.