In the last post I mentioned La Griteria, Wednesday’s big party. Quick background, this past week has been La Purisima. It’s a week to celebrate Mary’s, the mother of Jesus, birthday. All week there have been masses at peoples’ homes which consist of singing hymns to Mary and snacking (I struggled with the songs but love free food). It culminates with La Griteria which can best be described as Nicaragua’s Halloween. Only sans costumes and change the words. So families go door to door singing the same songs they’ve been singing all week and, in return, receive goodies! How it works is we, the beggars, shout “Who causes so much happiness?!” Then the gracious hosts reply “The Virgin Mary!” And then they hand out gifts. And what were these gifts you may ask? Whatever the heck they wanted. The majority of the goodies were candies and crackers but we also snagged some interesting loot. One girl got a bag of salt and another got laundry detergent. My favorite was we all got these “customized” hats that were for some other event and they gave us the leftovers. Pretty much the best part was the look on their faces when they opened the door and saw 10 gringos shouting at them about the Virgin Mary. Oh the good times in Nica.
Back to site tomorrow and the states in a week!
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