This chapter deals with music participation in the public fiestas, both religious and secular, and other public spectacles during the colonial period. The first section studies “Nativity celebrations,” such as Christmas, the birth of members of the royal family, and others. The analysis of two villancicos, composed for some of these occasions, shows how the genre was integrated into these festive contexts and how it interacted with other genres and styles. The second section is dedicated to different kinds of fiestas, in both the city itself and its margins, also dealing with official prohibitions to non-official music. Along with civic and religious ceremonies, this section considers the stage as a privileged space for the performance of music and dance, in spite of the absence of a public theater during most of the period studied. The final section examines music presence in burials and, in a broader sense, the relationship between music and death, showing that the former was frequently considered as a tool to reach the supernatural life.
