Festival of the Holy Cross

Held annually on Good Friday, this festival Cruz of Huatulco remembers when the Spaniards first arrived at to the bay of Huatulco, and they discovered a great wood cross standing on beach now called Santa Cruz.

The indigenous people told the Spaniards that the cross was a holy symbol for many generations among the Indians, after it was brought by a white-robed bearded man coming from the sea, who departed shortly after and never returned.

But the cross really became famous in 1567, when the English pirate Tomás Cavendish assaulted the port of Huatulco with 120 men, intending to seize and pillage the city. When they found little of value, Cavendish ordered his men to remove a sacred cross, the Santa Cruz de Huatulco, which stood on the beach near the city.

He tried to demolish it with axes and saws but could not. He then tied the cross with ropes to his ship sailing into the open sea, but still could not move it. Last, he tried to burn it, but the cross remained standing.

In 1612, Bishop Juan de Cervantes finally ordered the removal of the cross. He had it brought to the cathedral of Oaxaca, where it was divided into 4 pieces fashioned after the original. One of the copy remains in the Cathedral of Oaxaca, with the others in Huatulco, in the cathedral of Puebla, and at the Vatican in Rome.

Summary of Some of Huatulco's major events: