That Shout on the Eve of Independence Day: Mexico's Independence Day Celebrations and Latin America's Amulets
Late on the night of 15 September 2026, a friend working in Mexico City sent me a voice message with nothing but voices in the background. He said: "The president is about to ring the bell." It was the eve of Independence Day, and according to Xinhua's photo report of 16 September, the local Independence Day celebrations had already begun.
In the small hours of 16 September 1810, the priest Miguel Hidalgo rang the church bell in the town of Dolores and shouted the words later known as the "Cry of Dolores", and Mexico's independence movement began from there. More than two hundred years on, the gesture is replayed once a year: late on 15 September the president rings the bell and shouts from the balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City; the daylight hours of 16 September bring the military parade, and the day is a public holiday locally.
Compared with that shout from the balcony, I was more curious about what ordinary people wear on their hands that night.
In Mexico and much of Latin America, children wear a "deer's eye" (ojo de venado) tied around the wrist — the seed of a leguminous plant with a ring of eye-like markings across the middle. Folk belief holds that it wards off the "evil eye" (mal de ojo): being stared at too long, or praised too extravagantly, can leave you "catching" something bad, and wearing an eye to send the gaze back blocks it. Local media has even recorded a fine point of practice: if the seed cracks or falls off by itself, the old people will say "it took a hit for you", and by custom it is then buried in the earth or thrown into running water.
One bell, one seed — and behind them the same movement: finding yourself a handle in the middle of uncertainty, enough to get through the night.
The handle differs from person to person. Some rely on a seed; others on writing their questions down one by one and taking an honest look at their own situation. 占卜迷指 does the latter: you state the trouble, it recommends a suitable method, and then chart, interpretation and export let you think it over slowly. It will not tie that seed on for you.
Sources
- Xinhua (photo report, 16 September 2026: Mexico's Independence Day celebrations begin): https://www.xinhuanet.com/photo/20260916/c4d88b2c3abd4672a4e44af869835726/c.html
- Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, country profile of Mexico (independence day on 16 September, the independence movement of 1810): https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/gjhdq_676201/gj_676203/bmz_679954/1206_680604/
- Excélsior, Mexico, on the ojo de venado (deer's eye amulet) and the folk beliefs around it: https://www.excelsior.com.mx/estilo-de-vida/ojo-venado-que-es-y-que-pasa-si-rompe
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