All right - en cuanto a los acontecimientos de la semana...
This week, in all Central and South America the week before easter is known as Semana Santa, or the Holy Week. On Holy Week, there are a TON of traditions:
Monday: Everyone's running around to buy things for the festivals.
Tuesday: Everyone's still running around to buy things for the festivals.
Wednesday: First wave of travelers leaves town to go to the beach, or the river, or to go some place to swim.
Holy Thursday: This just happened to be my 20th birthday. All the world closes their shops, and no one goes out. Wednesday is a busy night, but in the morning, there is absolute and utter silence. In the afternoon people start to open up their doors to party and do things like that. The traditional food of this time is called "torrejas." It's like a Guatemalan version of French Toast, but it's very good. People party and drink A LOT.
Holy Friday: This is the day of the Holy Burial and the Holy Carpets. The Catholics are out in the stretts making "carpets" of colored sand, fruit, bread, pine needles - whatever they can find. And they look SUPER cool. (We didn't get any pictures because we're Mormon missionaries and we didn't want to look suspicious.) The Holy burial - a parade that passes with a whole bunch of floats of the Virgin Mary, Christ with the Cross, etc. pass over these carpets, with a WHOLE TON of people following behind them.
Holy Saturday: Everyone goes to the beach.
Holy Sunday: Everyone's recovering from the wild week, so the street is still quiet.
Not exactly the holiest of weeks, but it's pretty cool. And at the end of it there was a baptism. I don't have time to write about all the other adventures, but I'll try to write some more about it next week! Love you guys!
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Elder Jeffrey Reed
Thanks for being a good example to Elder Moore! He's been out one year today, and sure loves it. Fun to read your posts and see this pic.
ReplyDeleteAmy Moore