Lavandería
Today I want to write about such a simple act of household as doing laundry and arranging clothes to dry on our terrace. We do have a laundry machine, laundry is not done by hand. However, it is arranged by hand on hangers, and it is secured by hand with clothes pins. (We had hard time finding both – hangers and clothes pins. Hangers we found at Bodega Aurora and clothes pins we found at Abarrotes on 20 De Enero Street, where we go for fruits.)
Do you know that arranging cloths on hangers, pining the clothes down on the hangers with the pins and after arranging them on the rod to dry almost feels like a meditation? When I was young, still living in Georgia, hanging clothes was almost like a daily ritual, all housewives would take this task very seriously. Washed clothes had to be arranged by colors and size. Was easy to do in summer, but not that easy during winter snow.
Do you know, that clothes dried outside on the sunny or in the winter cold day have smell of sun and snow?
Do know, whites get whiter if dried on the sun and/or snow?
I am doing my best to arrange clothes according to the old ritual from Georgia; not sure how successful I am in it, but I try.
In Georgia, clothes lines and clothes hanging was not only a ritual, it also was superstitious. It was said, if you leave baby clothes out at night, baby will not sleep. Aluh knows how many times I had jumped out of bed in the middle of night to remove baby clothes from the clothes lines, because I had forgotten about them earlier.
I do not know how Georgians dry their clothes nowadays. I hope they still use clothes lines and arrange it per colors and sizes…but it had been a really long time since I lived in Georgia. World travelers, do you know answer?
Places, where I noted similar rituals of cloths lines were Croatia and Venezia. My sister was laughing when looking at my photos from these two countries. She knew why I was taking those photos. It makes me sad to see that new homes in San Miguel de Allende have dries! Why? There is no, absolutely no necessity or need for dries here.
On final note laundry in Spanish is Lavandería. Gives me association with color and smell of Lavender.
Wild is the Wind
Say you do
Let me fly away
With you
For my love is like
The wind
And wild is the wind
Than one caress
Satisfy this
Hungriness
Let the wind
Blow through your heart
For wild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Touch me
I hear the sound
Of mandolins
You
Kiss me
With your kiss
My life begins
You’re spring to me
All things
To me
Life itself
To the tree
Oh my darling,
Cling to me
For we’re like creatures
Of the wind
Wild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Touch me
I hear the sound
Of mandolins
You
Kiss me
With your kiss
My…
Touch me
I hear the sound
Of mandolins
You
Kiss me
With your kiss
My life begins
You’re spring to me
All things
To me
Life itself
To the tree
Oh my darling,
Cling to me
For we’re like creatures
In the wind
And wild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Two totally deference perforce of the same song. Both breathtaking… Wild is the wind… Wild is the wind… Wild is the wind…Wild is the wind
Easter-Time Ritual
The burning of Judas is an Easter-time ritual held by Orthodox and Catholic communities. Effigies of Judas Iscariot are burned, hanged, flogged or exploded with fireworks. Once widely practiced across Europe, now it can be seen only in Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The Spaniards and Portuguese spread the tradition around their colonies and it is still celebrated in Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile and The Philippines.
Strange thing is that it was all sort of mummies hanging. One looked like grigo. I was told, sometimes San Migeulian’s hang politicians they do no like, sometimes do not know whom else. All sort of “people” who stand on they way, It was in total 12 mummies hanging ready to be exploded by firework belts.
I witnessed exploding three of those and after I left. Apparently, this time they didn’t name them, just who donated them.
Gringo looking
Devil looking
Not sure whom this represents
Spinning and spinning
And at the end blows off into small pieces. See video above.
Details of who is who can be found here
Good Friday in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
My original home country is deeply orthodox Christian country, where people take religion seriously, obey all religious holidays, follow numerous long and short lents, celebrate Easter and Christmas at fullest.
However, I have never seen anything like what I saw yesterday. Not in my home country Georgia or anywhere else.
A well organized, fully orchestrated and I am sure numerous times rehearsed parade of Christianity marching from the center of San Miguel de Allende. Carrying statue after statue of Jesus Christo, Archangels, Angles, Mother Mary, crosses, glass coffin with statue of Jesus Christo. All statues were put on pedestals and pedestals were covered with fresh flowers, lilies of colors of lilac, white. Road was covered in wild chamomile flowers, live music and songs were played as procession moved along.
I loved seeing the women with mantillas, a traditional Spanish and Latin American liturgical lace or silk veil/ shawl over the head and shoulders, over a high comb, a peineta. Wearing high heals and white gloves.
It was a moving example of unity, love, true equity and unconditional love of Jesus Christo shining from participants and from the pubic which gathered around much ahead of the time before procession started. Only superiority was given to older women who were leading segments of procession. As it should be!
Parade continued over 2 hours. As they were finishing, street cleaners were there already cleaning and fixing, for the day to come.
Photos and videos are worth a thousand words, expresses everything much better than any words.
Semana Santa or Holy Week
Holy Week and San Miguel—A Special Reverence
Almost nowhere in Mexico is Semana Santa recognized with such reverence, tradition and awe as in San Miguel de Allende. Visitors both devout and curious come from all over Mexico (and the world) to experience the intense emotion of these observances of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.
Despite the crowds, this is not a tourist show. These Holy Week ceremonies are deeply felt statements of faith. Many of the rituals go back centuries. It is a privilege to be allowed to observe them—and even participate if your faith leads you to do so.
In Mexico, Easter observations are a package deal—not just a day or even a week. In San Miguel de Allende, Semana Santa or Holy Week, is not really a “week.” The pageantry leading up to the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday actually begins two weeks before Easter and continues into the week after.
Banks and most other businesses not catering to tourists will be closed on Good Friday. Some may also close on Thursday and Saturday of that week.
In addition to being a religious holiday, Holy Week in Mexico is also a vacation time for many Mexicans. (I’m told Mexico City becomes a virtual ghost town.) Millions head to the popular beach resorts, but more than a few will come to San Miguel. Restaurants and accommodations in San Miguel will be crowded. If you plan to visit, book hotels well in advance. Check the San Miguel Hotels Directory for possibilities.
NOTE: The dates for Semana Santa 2009 are April 3-12.
The site, link is provide above, old site, but ahs the fullest information in regards of Semana Santa week in San Miguel de Allende.
This photos are from yesterday The Thursday, April 6, 2023. This event took place at San Antonio Plaza. The event in the sense “replicated” Da Vinci’s Last Supper. You can see some participants are dressed in similar to paintings robes, some carry food. The procession came out of the church under the sound almost like a bang of the balls, walked around plaza and returned to church square and set around table. After for about 2 hours was mass under open air, singing and celebrating. People also till late night were going from church to church for the piece of bread. In my home country it is a piece of bread dipped into red wine, where red wine represents blood of Christo.
You can see the robes of monks above reflect colors of The Last Supper – a mural painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci
NANA G SMITH 