Fiestas abound in Mexico.
The following listing of major holidays, by no means complete, is intended to help the newcomer to Mexico understand the motive for hearing rockets blasting off at dawn, finding a local bank or post office closed on a weekday, or encountering traffic brought to a halt by a passing parade or religious procession. Every village and each parochial sector of the nation's larger towns and cities has a designated a holy personage in whose honor fiestas patronales are held annually. In most cases such festivities take the form a novenario, a nine-day celebration with unique characteristics that are traditional to each locality. Many religious celebrations have their roots in the pre-Hispanic era, while most civic holidays reflect modern historical events. Government offices, banks, schools and some businesses close across the nation for major national holidays.