Easter - Gringo Edition

Here in SLT, Easter Sunday is celebrated with morning mass and a stroll by the Lake. We thought we'd share our tradition of the Easter Egg Hunt. I tried to come up with a complicated explanation for the tradition by claiming that Easter Eggs represent a story in the bible in which Elizabeth's eggs turned red when she became fertile again but I got voted down by my gringo friends and ultimately Wikipedia betrayed me and left me with no better explanation for an Easter Egg Hunt than that eggs are a symbol of new life and kids love candy.

We dyed eggs on Saturday ... 60 in all for the 10 kids. And then got the adults to help us hide the eggs on Sunday morning. Canche was up earliest and asking about the hunt all morning but we didn't get started until 10:30. Mom and I had time to get to the market and get started on our lunch for the whole gang of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Anyway, the kids had a blast searching for their eggs and playing egg-games after the hunt for prizes. Angel told me this morning that little Canche was up until 11pm re-hiding and re-finding his eggs. He is great at entertaining himself!

Semana Santa

The Julajuj's alfombra on the street in front of their houseHow it all started: dying sawdustThe were over 20 of the large bags full of dyed sawdust by the time we finishedAngel preparing the designs to fill with sawdustMaximon, a Myan icon (Judas for the Catholics), hung at the church entrance on ThursdayThe family decorated and raised a big arch for the procession to pass under on FridayFriday morning, opening the first bag of sawdust for the alfombraEvening out the sawdust that would form the base of the alfombra

Group photo as the carpet is finished and the procession approaches from the church Father Greg helping carry the procession
Maria Elena's son, Rudy, has the honor of leading with the incenseAnd the electric generator-man follows so Christ can be illuminated by florescent lightsThe aftermath ... kids feverishly gathered the sawdust to play with later

Angel's family watching the procession
Young spectator in traditional San Lucas traje

The alfombra leading out of the church...in the making Designed after the pattern on the San Lucas traje
Other alfombras in town

After all the processions and alfombras, Maximon got carried back to the cofradia and was re-built.