Time and place in Morelia as stated in the title. The very colorful kick-off to Carnival season 10 days before the start of Lent om 9 March Ash Wednesday.

Very colorful festival where huge "little bulls" of all types of colorful animals and figures of bright tissue are danced around the plaza. This will be going on all day and into the evening all week through city streets and colonias.

The pre-hispanic P'urhépecha tradition of dancing a bull's head was a spring fertility rite to ensure good crops. After the Spanish conquest and at the urging of Vasco de Quiroga the tradition was continued as a pre-Lent celebration. The bull head remained at first but was adorned with a sombrero to make it bigger and evolved into an artistic event and dance that is now a very colorful and joyful spectacular.

Throughout colonias and village streets the Toritos de Petate woven from reed will be paraded along with a band and a vaquero on horseback that is twirling his lasso and taunting the bull. The accompanying minstrels will be looking to play and perform the dance for donations. Even if you miss the big celebrations downtown they will likely come parading into your colonia and down your street. Share the joy and fun and ask them perform for you and your neighbors.

Toritos street event on YouTube

Local TV news on Azteca says the Toritos will be dancing through 40 different colonias in Morelia this week.

I hear from the TV news the Toritos will at San Francisco Saturday 5 March and at the Plaza de Toros downtown on Sunday 6 March. I still haven't seen them in my colonia yet. I guess we have until Carnaval Tuesday for that. Looking forward to seeing them here in Lago III - my colonia.

I'm living near mercado revolution now. The toritos are all around here today and I imagine they will be in the area tomorrow too

With all this talk about the Toritos - how about someone getting some photographs for those of us that are culturally and location challenged?

You mean kind of like this:

Right, that's the idea. I was just on the upper deck watching the Saturday night Catedral lighting ceremony with fireworks. 9pm Saturdays, fireworks last almost 10 minutes. I need to say a few lines about that sometime too.

That kind of thing makes you feel like celebrating being home, home in Mexico. Similar to the good feeling I get as I return from the coast or tierra caliente and passing by Zirahuen that I can look out at Lago de Pátzcuaro to Janitzio Island and see the 60' statue of Morelos with his hand raised and welcoming me back. Toritos for Carnaval to boot, these things make me feel good and feel good about making this my home.

Peter wrote:
"Similar to the good feeling I get as I return from the coast or tierra caliente..."

Funny, that's how we always feel when we're returning from a visit to Morelia, and we see Lake Pátzcuaro coming into view!

On a more serious note, I have some photos of Toritos del Petate, from 2004, which I apparently have never uploaded. Maybe now's the time.

—I searched, but didn't find anything on the subject. I recall enjoying watching the colorfully costumed dancers for about 10 minutes, after which it became noisy and repetitive.
<scratches head>

Not sure what the full traditions are for the Toritos. I missed seeing them several weeks ago when I expected to but finally today, Easter, Pascua, Toritos came dancing in past my colonia with band and people following along. They didn't stop and perform but came up to my corner, made a turn, then kept dancing along.

I'm not sure what this one represented as it did not appear to be an animal or a recognizable figure, rather, it was toll, silver and red and quite flashy. I feel better now that they visited, otherwise it was a very quiet weekend here.

Happy Easter, Pascua, Spring Break. I hope you all enjoyed a nice holiday!