April 10, 2009

Good Friday means lots of different things in the village

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - Good Friday dawned beautiful and cold (63 degrees!) here today, with the village already buzzing at first light. For those of you thinking of sending me a sweater, thanks, but a half-hour past sunrise, it was a balmy 75 degrees (and rising).

It was to be a day of families, fun, religion, and for the tiendas - a lot of business.

Next door, at the tienda owned by Javier, cases of beer were being chilled at 8 a.m. in anticipation of the vacacionistas who have been coming in in packed cars and trucks for several days now. He also has loaded up his shelves with other beach-dweller needs - potato chips, cookies and, of course, watermelons.

Other tiendas have signs out selling gasoline and the sidewalks (such as they are) are covered with other beach-related stuff: flip-flops, boogie boards, soccer balls, umbrellas and chairs.

It's a bonanza for local merchants, it seems.

Vacacionistas visit town
Vacacionistas heading into town

But even as the vacacionistas were loading beer, a re-enactment of Christ's journey towards his death was played out with village children playing the various parts. Those parts included a number of boys acting as Roman soldiers, with cracking whips. Some of the boys appeared to be getting into the whipping thing a little forcefully. I hope the whips are retired when the pageant is over.

The Admiral and I have been told that instead of an Easter mass, the padre will come by Saturday for an Easter service. He might be in too big a demand this weekend and needs to say mass elsewhere Sunday morning.

Dressing for the pageant
Getting dressed for the re-enactment

Christ takes the cross II
Christ takes the cross

Here's a short video of one part of the morning's re-enactment:

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