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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.

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