Our contact, George, in SLP (San Luis Potosi) asked if we spoke any Spanish. When I told him that my high school Spanish was pretty rusty and Fred has only learned enough words, like "bano" and "una cervesa por favor", to survive, he suggested that we find Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish. I found the book! Her first sentence says we know several thousand Spanish words even if we have never studied Spanish before. Of course many are spelled the same or almost the same, but pronounced slightly or quite differently! I also pulled out my Immersion Spanish CD's that we purchased before our last trip to Mexico. I'm trying so spend time everyday on my Spanish. We'll see when we get there how much I can understand!
Every trip we take I like to find out more about a place before we go. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to find a novel set in the local or non fiction histories. This trip I'm studying my Spanish, searching the web for historical information about SLP and asking everyone I know about their Easter Traditions. Semana Santa translates to Holy Week. It is a many layered event from our lets going skiing, Easter Vacation level, to deeply felt passion plays and processions of silence. I hope to see how artistic expressions create depth and flavor to these events at many levels.
For myself Easter has always been a celebration of the coming of spring. Church going was not a regular part of my childhood. But we always got a new spring dress, a basket of dyed eggs and candy from the Easter bunny, and enjoyed a family picnic. If the weather was good it was outdoors where we could enjoy the spring flowers, new leaves on the trees and meadow grass and have an easter egg hunt. Sometimes us kids went to church with our neighbors, where I learned some basic bible stories. Through my untrained eyes the Resurrection Of Christ parallels the renewal of spring.
I wish to know more about how our traditions form cultures. What does Easter mean to you?
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