All-night activities, lively folk music, tamales and hot chocolate are not usually associated with church, but Wednesday is no ordinary day for Latino Catholics.

Churches throughout the country and Latin America will fill with worshippers before dawn to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which marks an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 16th-century Mexico.

The apparition is considered one of the most significant events in bringing Christianity to Latin America. A miraculous imprint of the virgin - said to have appeared on a cloth carried by the man who saw her apparition - is displayed under glass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where 10 million people a year gaze at it from a distance of 25 feet.

Pope St. Pius X declared the Virgin of Guadalupe the Patroness of Latin America in 1910. She was later named patroness of North and South America.

"In the Hispanic community, Our Lady of Guadalupe holds a very important place in the culture and the family and the spirit," said Deacon Miguel Enrique of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Carlsbad.

While other churches with a significant Latino population will hold predawn services Dec. 12, the official Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Patrick's celebration started nine days earlier at the church's Lady of Guadalupe Chapel.

Beginning Monday, when about 30 people attended the 7 p.m. service, worshipers at the chapel prayed the Rosary and meditated on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Enrique said.

The faithful will continue to go to the chapel each evening until Dec. 11. The evening will begin with the Rosary being prayed at 7 p.m.

"Then at 9 p.m., we will open the church," Enrique said. "We've going to have this large image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and we'll stay open all night, until 6 a.m. the next morning."

In the past, services were held outside the chapel and between 500 and 600 people showed up, said Enrique, who expects even more this year when activities are moved inside the church.

"Normally we have a mariachi band that shows up at 4 o'clock (a.m.) and they play for two hours, but throughout the night, beginning at 1 o'clock, there are musical bands that will show up and play three, four, five songs to honor her, and then, boom, they're gone," Enrique said. "Then out of the clear blue sky, here comes another band."

People also bring large pots of hot chocolate and Mexican food to share with others throughout the night.

A prayer service will be held at 5:30 a.m. and the church will close at 6 a.m.

"At 7 p.m., we will have our Eucharist celebration," Enrique said. "That's going to be huge. Our Sunday Mass hits 1,100 people. We'll probably be up to 1,200 or 1,300 people."

The apparition

Between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, 1531, according to church histories, la Virgen Morena (the brown Virgin) was said to have appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from Dec. 9, 1531 through Dec. 12, 1531.

The apparition spoke to Juan Diego, a native of the recently conquered Aztec empire, in his native language and told him to build an abbey on the site.

Juan Diego relayed the message to Spanish Bishop Fray Juan de Zumarraga, who asked for proof of the miraculous apparition. When Juan Diego again saw the apparition, the Virgin told him to gather flowers on the hill. Although it was December, he found roses in bloom and gathered them in his tilma, a traditional outer garment.

He took the flowers to the bishop and dropped them on the floor. After the roses fell, the men saw an image of the Virgin imprinted on Juan Diego's tilma. The bishop agreed to build the abbey.

Today, the original chapel at the site is part of several buildings on the sanctuary grounds of the new Basilica, which was completed in 1976. The building can accommodate up to 50,000 people, and its circular structure allows the image of the Virgin to be seen from any point inside.

Why the Virgin Mary was identified as "Guadalupe" is unclear. One theory is that she actually identified herself as the one "who crushes the serpents," which would be a reference to one of the chief Aztec gods. In Juan Diego's native language of Nahuatl, her name then would have been Quetzalcoatl, pronounced in Spanish as "quatlasupe," just similar enough to Guadalupe to be confused over time.

Some historians, however, believe that the name actually came from the Guadalupan shrine dedicated to the Lady of Guadalupe in Spain.

However the name came, the apparition is credited with helping a fast rise in Christianity throughout Mexico and Latin America. In just 10 years, an estimated 10 million Indians converted to Christianity.

Celebrating the anniversary of the Virgin of Guadalupe, as she also is called, is also a celebration of Christianity itself, Enrique said.

"It goes back to that December in 1532 when Our Lady of Guadalupe appears to a nation of indigenous people," he said. "In a moment of struggle with the New World coming into Mexico and the indigenous people trying to keep their own religion, it was this lady who brought a new sense of hope and a new sense of assurance. One theologian has said the meaning of her apparition, what it brought to humanity, is very equivalent to what the birth of Jesus Christ meant to the people in his time. There's a context of hope and assurance and promise and strength."

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

Other celebrations

Not all Catholic churches will be holding all-night celebrations, but Our Lady of Guadalupe services will be held before sunrise throughout North County.

At Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Rancho Penasquitos, the celebration begins at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday with the singing of mananitas, followed by a candle-lighting procession and a Mass in Spanish.

Azucena Faus, Hispanic coordinator at the church, said about 150 people usually attend and then stay to share food they bring for breakfast.

At Church of the Resurrection in Escondido, an all-night vigil will begin at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, ending with a Mass in Spanish at 6 a.m. and a Mass in English at 8 a.m. At 5:30 p.m. that night, "The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe" will be performed, followed by the Rosary at 6 p.m., a procession with a mariachi band at 6:30 p.m., a Spanish Mass at 7 p.m., and dinner and entertainment in the Parish Hall at 8 p.m.

At St. Mark's Catholic Church of San Marcos, activities Dec. 12 begin at 4 a.m. with the singing of mananitas. The church will hold a candlelight procession at 6:30 p.m. that evening, followed by a main celebration at 7 p.m.

At St. Francis Catholic Church in Vista, activities begin at 5 a.m. Wednesday with mananitas, with a Mass and candlelight procession scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

At St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Valley Center, mananitas are at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, followed by a 6 a.m. Spanish Mass and a 8:45 a.m. English Mass.

For other Our Lady of Guadalupe activities in North County, contact local Catholic churches.