Wow what a warm and sunny morning, sorry to you in the north east!!!!
Great for two hours of fun tennis
..I feel better each day and hopefully I am on the mend......just relaxed the rest of the day.
Then decided it was time for a haircut...I go about two blocks away where a very lovely young lady cuts hair in the front room of her house.
...it is a fun place her children play in the other room and they laugh all the time.
So for a great haircut and shave.....40 pesos...just incredible price even with a nice tip!!,
Yesterday was the start of Candelaria....
February 2nd may be Groundhog Day in the United States, but in Mexico, there is a completely different celebration on this date. This is the religious holiday known as Día de la Candelaria (or Candlemas in English). Throughout Mexico on this date, people dress up figures of the Christ Child in special outfits and take them to the church to be blessed, and they also get together with family and friends to eat tamales, as a continuation to the festivities of Three Kings' Day on January 6. This is mainly a religious and family celebration, but in some places, such as Tlacotalpan, in the state of Veracruz, it is a major fiesta with bullfights and parades.
Presentation of Christ at the Temple
February 2nd falls exactly forty days after Christmas and is celebrated by the Catholic church as the feast of the Purification of the Virgin or alternatively, as the Presentation of the Lord at the Temple. The origin of this religious feast day comes from ancient Jewish custom. According to Jewish law, a woman was considered unclean for 40 days after giving birth, and it was customary to bring a baby to the temple after that period of time had passed. so the idea is that Mary and Joseph would have taken Jesus to the temple to be blessed on February second, forty days after his birth on December 25.
Candlemas and Groundhog Day
This date is special for another reason as well. It marks the mid-way point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, which aligns with the pagan holiday of Imbolc. Since ancient times, this date was thought to be a marker or predictor of the weather to come, which is why it is also celebrated as Groundhog Day in the United States.
In many places, this is traditionally seen as the best time to prepare the earth for spring planting.
Día de la Candelaria
In Mexico, this holiday is celebrated as Día de la Candelaria. It is known as Candlemas in English, because from around the 11th Century in Europe there was a tradition of bringing candles to the church to be blessed as part of the celebration. This tradition was based on the biblical passage of Luke 2:22-39 that says that when Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple, a particularly devout man named Simeon embraced the child and prayed the Canticle of Simeon: "Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace; Because my eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." The reference to the light inspired the celebration of the blessing of the candles.
As mentioned above a great time for planting so one of the beautiful parks here in the Centro transforms into a huge garden market with hundreds of vendors here for nine days selling amazing plants, flowers and pots!!!
So I went down and just had a look around..so many beautiful plants and flowers and decorations!!!
Hope you had a good Saturday!!
Yashi Kochi!!!
3 comments:
Your San Miguel spring comes so much earlier than ours in the US southeast; a celebration of plants and flowers is a wonderful way to encourage the local population to plant flowers or sow some seeds. Since you and Gracie are driving to the coast, I guess you will have to delay your planting (and, of course, watering) until you return. Drive safely and thank you for the beautiful photos.
P.S. The photo of the crying child getting a haircut reminds me of my son, Todd, at that age during his first haircut. I really didn't want him to have the haircut because he had beautiful curly red ringlets, but his father insisted. The only way I could keep him from crying in the salon chair was to continuously feed him chocolate; I was eating chocolate too to keep myself from crying!
Yes we will wait..the weather is so perfect except of course we could use some rain....I had a mass of curls as a kid....nice chocolate story. Les
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