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It is difficult to overstate the role of Marian devotion in Argentine Catholicism. One of the most remarkable elements of Argentine devotion is the proliferation and salience of local advocaciones, titles or appearances under which Mary is invoked.

On a hilltop in Salta, devotees visit a sanctuary for the Virgen del Cerro, who regularly appears to an intermediary there. People come for peace, spiritual connection and healing.

In much of northern Argentina, San Expedito stands out as one of the most popular saints for poor people. In San Miguel de Tucumán, devotees line the block to visit his statue on the 19th of every month.

Pilgrims play a large and communal role in the feast of Señor y Virgen del Milagro, held in Salta, Argentina September 13-15 each year. As many as 60,000 pilgrims walk, bike, or ride by horseback from farmlands and desert towns all over the province and beyond1 to join a total of 800,000 feast 1Total numbers are from El Tribuno , Salta, Argentina, September 16, 2015, 1 and 3, while the number of pilgrims was given in the same paper on September 14, 2015, 1. Both times the paper cites police figures. Almost all of the participants, so far as the author could tell, were Argentinian.

China is said to be in the midst of the largest internal migration in history, as rural villagers flood into large urban areas in search of the jobs now available in construction and export manufacturing. As young people leave their tight-knit, majority-Catholic villages, it remains to be seen how their religious practice will be affected.

Among ordinary Catholics, religious practice is flourishing and evolving in a variety of fascinating ways, as the Chinese Catholics find their place in the larger Catholic world and discern how to respond to so many changes in Chinese society.

Many shrines and basilicas in Mexico are cluttered with petitionary and votive offerings of Catholic devotees seeking or paying gratitude for miracles. These devotees apply human and supernatural attributes to certain sacred images, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Lord of Chalma, and the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos.

In Izalco, in Western El Salvador, the confraternity known as the Hermandad de Jesús Nazareno leads an overnight procession that brings thousands of people into the streets for that city’s biggest event of the year to commemorate Jesus’ Passion.

Christmas Eve, often known by its Spanish name, Noche Buena, begins for many Filipino Catholics early in the morning with a pre-dawn Simbang Gabi Mass. By nighttime, the celebration that has been under way for some time reaches its peak. The primary Christmas Mass for most Filipinos, the Misa de Gallo, takes place late in the evening. Mass is preceded by, or includes, a Panunuluyan reenactment, and is followed by public and family festivities that run deep into the night. Panunuluyan Panunuluyan, a traditional Filipino reenactment of Joseph and Mary’s search for suitable place for Mary to give

December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is celebrated with particular attention and ceremony in the Philippine Catholic Church. Filipino Catholics have an especially strong devotion to Mary. Devotees attribute many miracles to her.