Skip to main content

first impressions of lent in mexico city

for being such a catholic country they don't seem to take lent very seriously. i never thought of myself as a person who took lent super seriously, but here i could probably be put in that category.


for ash wednesday (the first day of lent-Feb. 17th this year) i know it's not a holy day of obligation, but if you want to receive ashes, you go to church and receive them during mass. Not here. Here they only have one mass in the morning and otherwise the church and chapels (like ours for example) have ministers stationed there to distribute ashes. So it literally takes like 30 seconds. And here you don't have to worry about the big cross on your forehead all day. They use a little stamp so the cross is very little and neat.

I think of celebrating the day before lent at Mardi Gras and once lent starts the celebrations stop. Nope, not here. I was shocked when I went to the parish at night on ash wednesday to see more vendors than usual on the streets. It was like they were celebrating Mardi Gras on Ash Wednesday. I guess this happens because so many people are out on their way to the parish to receive ashes and they stop to get food on the way. But I thought, 'Why are they celebrating on the first day of lent. Lent is depressing.' They don't celebrate Mardi Gras here.

I've always given up something or tried to improve myself in some way during lent. Not normal here. When I talked about giving something up for lent i heard, "yeah, no meat on wednesdays and fridays." And I responded, "No in addition to that." They've never heard of it.

Speaking of not eating meat on Fridays. "Meat" to them only includes red-meat. This means they still eat turkey and chicken. Hmmmm. I tried to explain that I didn't think that was ok, but at the end of the conversation, like so many i have here, i said well that's your tradition so it's fine. I mean who am I to judge?

Also the idea of 2 small meals and one regular one is basically unheard of as well.

then at mass today they gave out ashes again. I've never seen ashes at any time other than ash wednesday. but as father said at mass, "it's not only for ash wednesday, it's a symbol"


It'll be interesting to see how lent plays out.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fall Fun!

We could not have asked for better fall weather this weekend.  70 degrees.  Sunny.  We just wanted to be outside the entire time.   We went for runs and decided we needed to spend even more time appreciating the fall foliage, which apparently will peak in two weeks.  So two more weeks to enjoy!  We checked out a new to us restaurant.   Then we took a trip to Grant's Farm, which neither one of us had been to since we were kids.  And neither one of us remembered.  Capping off another day spent outside. Monday I hopped on my bike to get to work and my body felt tired from the fun of the weekend.  I looked out my window at my desk and saw so many beautiful leaves, I took a photo on the walk back to where I park my bike. P.S. Yes, I got a new job!  Hooray!  A more detailed update is coming.
Post a Comment
Read more

26 miles in 26 days

So the title isn`t exactly correct, but I ran a marathon yesterday and it was Melissa & my`s one month being here. But Caro helped me come up with the title and I thought it was catchy. So marathon #2 and a completely different experience than the one I ran last year in Chicago. Lisa Rottler Chamberlin is the name I ran the race with...I tried to sign up as Lisa Rottler, but it forced me to enter mom`s maiden name or i couldn`t continue with registration. the first difference I experienced this marathon in a very different way. In Chicago I was competitive I would say. It was on my mind since February of last year when I signed up. I was didigent about training and very serious about it. This year I signed up like 3 weeks ago and it was very last minute. Although, I ran like I was training for the marathon this summer in Chicago-that was 2 months ago. Last year the weekend of the marathon I rested. This year Friday night I went to my first quinceanera and got home at 4 a...
1 comment
Read more

Lake Recap

Yep, it's recap time from the week my family and I spent at the Lake . My parents rented a house and a boat for our family for the week.  We were around mile 24 for those of you who've been there before. Dad, Mom, Jeff, Greta & Charlie all slept in the guest house so that meant... Karen & I had the whole main house to ourselves.  ;)  (If only we didn't disagree on the temperature so much. I like it warmer than her).   That might be a bit of an exaggeration.  We had the whole place to ourselves, unless someone wanted food, hang out in the living room, do laundry, etc. We pretty much relaxed the whole time we were there.   We were out on the boat at least once a day. Karen & I are ready for a day on the boat! We got in some tubing and skiing.  (No pictures exist of tubing, but it happened.  My scabs from the cloth burn just came off at the end of last week.  And just ask Karen.  She was sore.  We all were.) ...
Post a Comment
Read more