Sth Bend, IN A Holiday Season Thread,

December 12, 2010
Our Lady Guadalupe. Guadalupe day, December 12, is Mexico's most important religious holiday.

I first discoveredd this holiday while driving home from work during a snow storm at around 1-am in the morning.

and noticed, on a 4-lane road (2-lanes each way) a crowd of people, many squad/police cars, temp traffic barriers,
flares, new traffic patterns, oh, did I mention a crowd of people (1 or 2 thousand that I could see)
and all in the street walking, with both sides of the street packed with parked cars.

NOTE: I have never seen this street with any parked cars, because it is between to cemetaries,
and
this 1 to 2 mile strech of road has no parking ever on it.

and so before I know it, I am going 2 miles an hour, with a lady and a baby carriage passing me on the right!

and yes, it is snowing, and people of all ages are everywhere.

I roll down my window and start saying, "excuse me, what is going on"

No one answers....well, at least not for a while,

finally, someone comes over and says one word, Guadalupe, and kinda looks at me like I am nuts.

or

How could I not know what was going on!

Well, turns out that this is one of several large celebrations in the Chicago,
all at around midnight, my thought is to think about it like Midnight Mass for the Christmas.

I was amazed to discover this. And to this day, it is like a big secrect. I never hear about it on the news.
or read about it in the paper.

Last year when I drove past this area just to see if it was still going on,
there were search lights and loudspeakers, but much better crowd control than the first time.

OK, that is a Holiday story for you. Wonder if there is a Holiday Tomorrow somewhere in the world

 

Happy Christmas, everyone! Even if I am.. kinda a day late =)

 

gee, how does that Star Wars song go,

On the first day in line my true love gave to me,

maybe not,

hhhmmmmm


On the first day of Star Wars I found myself in line,

no that-s not it.

uh, er,

on the next day of Christmas, Star Wars gave to me

still seems wrong,

I am sure it is the 12 days of Chirstmas (Star Wars?)
am not sure whent that starts of ends, maybe some kind of epiphany is needed......
hey, that is Jan 6,

anyway, Happy Holidays.......

Ed

ps, must admit, I forgot to honor a tradition of watching the Star Wars Holida special

 

The twelve days are from Christmas to Jan 6th =)

There's always the Live Day song that could be sung, though??

At 1:40

 

Happy New Year to my friends back east! Sorry I didn't try to make connections over the holidays. My wife was sick so we were kinda stuck around home. Maybe next year - wait, I mean this year!

 

Hope you can make it back sometime this year. Until then, LLAP.