The San Gabriel Mission Fiesta will commemorate the 234th birthday of a mission presence in San Gabriel during Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 2-4.
The annual fiesta --- which draws more than 20,000 people, including 700 volunteers --- features religious, historical and cultural festivities, a blessing of animals, games, rides, an international food court and prizes.
Descendents of the Gabrielino-Tongva Indians will perform traditional dance. Re-enacting early mission life and California history will be actors in period dress, including Father Junipero Serra, Klaus "Adobe Man" Duebbert, a blacksmith, wool spinner, map maker, calligrapher, soldiers, and mountain visitors.
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded Sept. 8, 1771 as the fourth of the 21 California missions, is the birthplace of the modern Los Angeles region, and was the first mission founded in what is today the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. (The other five in the archdiocese include San Fernando, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Inés and La Purísima Concepción.)
On Sept. 4, festivities begin with an early 6 a.m. annual 10-mile commemorative walk from San Gabriel to Los Angeles. The walk recalls those who left the San Gabriel Mission 10 years after it was started to establish, on Sept. 4, 1781, a satellite mission at Our Lady Queen of the Angels (La Placita) --- and the beginnings of what would become the City of Los Angeles.
Preserving history
Throughout the year visitors to San Gabriel Mission can experience and glimpse the vision, beauty and heritage that early Spanish settlers and Native peoples worked to create and preserve.
"It's a time capsule of California," said John Fantz, 69, San Gabriel Mission museum curator who has been telling mission stories since he was a youth.
Fantz was quick to point out that when the mission church was being constructed in the 1790s, George Washington was serving as the first president of the United States. The church was completed in 1805, and this year's fiesta will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the church's completion, making it the oldest building in California south of Monterrey.
A self-guided tour through the gardens, church and museum acquaint visitors with the various people and cultures that formed modern Southern California.
The Franciscan fathers administrated the mission from 1771 to 1852. The Claretian Missionary Fathers arrived in 1908 and continue to pastor the parish community today.
The original altar was made in Mexico City and brought to the mission in the 1790s. Six polychromed wooden statues were hand carved in Spain.
The mission baptismal font, a gift of King Carlos III of Spain in 1771, is made of hand-hammered copper. Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, was baptized in the font in 1801.
Inside the museum, a red silk vestment worn by Father Junipero Serra is preserved, as are many photographs detailing mission history.
In the gardens a plaque recognizes the 6,000 Shoshone indigenous people buried on the mission grounds, and the contributions they made to mission. Known as the Gabrielino-Tongva Indians, they engaged in metal smithing, leather works, carpentry, candle and soap making, and basket weaving. They also worked in agriculture, including olive oil and wine presses.
The first orange grove planted in California took place at the San Gabriel Mission with cuttings from Spain.
By the mid-1800s the mission boasted more than 2,300 fruit trees in nine orchards, more than 160,000 vines in vineyards, nearly 13,000 cattle and some 6,500 sheep.
Once a month, the mission holds a Saturday Mission History Day. On Aug. 6 a California native plant specialist will be on hand from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Visitors to the mission also receive a brochure to follow a self-guided four-block historical walk of the San Gabriel Mission District, which includes City Hall, and the Mission Playhouse, now the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium.
Today the mission continues as an active and diverse parish, said mission staff member Chuck Lyons. More than 70 parish groups minister to parishioners and serve the community in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Chinese, demonstrating that the mission continues to evangelize and welcome all who enter.
Editor's note: Mission San Gabriel, museum and gardens at 428 S. Mission Drive are open 359 days a year from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $3 ages 6-17, $5 ages 18-61, $4 ages 62 and older. For more information, see www.sangabrielmission.org or call (626) 457-3035.
San Gabriel Mission Fiesta
428 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel; (626) 457-3035
Friday, Sept. 2
---6-11:30 p.m.: Fiesta open to the public.
---6 p.m.: Ringing of the Bells Ceremony.
Saturday, Sept. 3
---3-11:30 p.m.: Fiesta open.
---9 a.m.: Children and pets costume contest.
---10:30 a.m.: Blessing of Animals.
---11 a.m.-4 p.m.: Re-enactors of Mission history.
---4:30 p.m.: History reception.
---6 p.m.: Birthday cake celebration.
Sunday, Sept. 4
---3-11:30 p.m.: Fiesta open.
---6 a.m.: Annual Walk to Los Angeles.
---9:30 a.m.: Founder's Memorial Mass.
---11 a.m.-4 p.m.: Re-enactors of Mission history.
---11:15 p.m.: Closing ceremony and prize drawings. |