Monday, December 12, 2016

LA VIRGEN


I'm not a religious person but if you live in Mexico, as I did for four years in the 1980's/1990's, you can't escape the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Also known as Our Lady of Guadalupe, she is a representation of the Virgin Mary.

She is enshrined in a Mexico City basilica and Wikipedia tells me it is the most visited Roman Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.

The story of her discovery by an Indian peasant in 1531 is too long to relate here but you can find it at this site, if you're so inclined.

Today, December 12th, is her official feast day.

Once when I was living in Mexico I noted that December 12th was also the wedding anniversary of some friends of ours and not only that, it was Frank Sinatra's birthday!

It's also the first day SWMBO puts up a small display of Christmas ornaments.

So it's a good day to celebrate whatever you believe in.

8 comments:

  1. Every day is a good day to celebrate.

    Well, almost every day.

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  2. Quite a difference- a Catholic feast and the birthday of Ol' Blue Eyes.

    For some reason the 12th of December reminds me that it has to be the birthday of someone I knew once, but specifically who, I can't recall anymore.

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  3. I like all those old Missions with Santos in niches. We really enjoyed a guided tour of the ruins of Tumacacori near Nogales in Southern AZ.

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  4. Mexicans are a festive people. I love their use of colors and their playfulness.

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  5. I believe in Sinatra! Re your comment on Ocala: The anhinga and the cormorant are cousins. I have a hard time telling the difference. We have mostly anhingas around these parts.

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  6. And it's my birthday! I remember discovering about 'la Lupita' years ago when I did a meme thing about sharing one's birthday, don't remember about Sinatra, though I seem to remember Robert Browning was either born or died on the 12th December.

    Another slightly odd thing is that three generations of women in my family have birthdays where the day and the month are the same ordinal number, so my mum's was the 9th of the 9th, mine the 12th of the 12th, and my niece's the 5th of the 5th.

    So now you know!

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