A few people asked me what was different about Easter in Chile, and I didn't really know what to say. The bus I took to church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday goes through a couple of suburbs, poorer and richer, and I didn't notice anything. It wasn't until my language teacher spoke about religion in Chile that I realised that this was significant in itself. Apparently Easter and Christmas aren't particularly special here - the really big days are the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmel (ie the Virgin Mary) on 16th July and the Fiesta de la Inmaculada Concepción de la Virgen María on the 8th December. Both festivals see people paying back a blessing received from the Virgin - in the first, if your child was healed, you promise that they will dance for her at La Tirana every year until they turn eighteen. In the second, people walk or cycle 85km from Santiago to Santuario de Lo Vásquez, crawling the last bit if their plight had been especially serious.
Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmel
Fiesta de la Inmaculada Concepción de la Virgen María
About Me
- fional
- Fiona is a proud Tasmanian who now calls Chile home. Both Hobart and Santiago sit beneath mountains, but the mountains are very different and their cities too. With God's help, Fiona will help her Chilean sisters make sense of the Bible, get to know its Author better and learn what it means to live as loved, forgiven people.
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments
0 comentarios:
Post a Comment