Friday, September 28, 2007

"Dagnabbit"

That's what it sounded like when people used to say that instead of curse words.....sure don't know how to spell it!
It is raining here today..........the flowers are happy.......but this is the BIG weekend for the celebration of St. Michael the Archangel Day and many indigenous people come in to parade and dance in their Indian costumes for two days.............the Voladeros take the bus from the State of Veracruz (6 hours) to get here and depend on the tips for their bus fare here and back......if it rains, no tips. That's what happened last year. One of the Voladeros approached me to buy his costume so they would have money to get back home......I couldn't, but a friend did buy it. Sad.
I think this rain is from Hurricane Lorenzo that came in about 6 hours east of us at Tuxpan this morning. Hopefully it will be over tomorrow when the parades begin.
Tonight at midnight as many people as wish, stand in front of the Parroquia (the big church) and sing Las Mananitas (Happy Birthday) to St. Michael. It is very poignant. Then at 3AM the Alborada happens - it is the battle of good (St. Michael) and bad (the devil) in the form of rockets, fireworks and heaven knows what else. People are warned to have umbrellas or pieces of cardboard as armor to prevent being burned by falling embers. I only had to see this event once.............3AM, get burned..........Not my idea of fun. Then at 6AM they have another Las Mananitas. I wonder if that is to see who was brave enough to survive the night! Ha.
I have giiven all my photographs to someone of all of the above and when I get them back, I'll share some on the blog.
NEVER a dull moment in San Miguel!

2 comments:

DeAnne said...

Great blog! I had not heard nor ever seen in print, the 'Texas' words you use. Music to my old ear.

picklesandroses.blogspot.com said...

Ah, yes. The Feast of St Michael's. It was such fun to watch all the parades and fireworks.