La virgen de Pilar

¡Hola everyone!


Hacia muy calor hoy y este es mi tiempo para dormir pero quiero hablar con uds. sobre mis adventuras de jueves y viernes, o hoy, de este semana.

Let me know how many people understood that! It is kind of spanglish and I used easier words so you should be able to figure it outç!

So yestaurday was a national holiday in Spain called the Virgen of Pilar. I am not quite sure I remember the story extremely well so when i do figure out more about it I will let you know.

Back to yestaurday I got up at 7 to walk a couple streets around my house following a procession of a statue in rememberance of the virgen de Pilar. It was pretty neat so I am going to try to explain it. In front there is a priest followed by teenage boys carrying candles on long poles they hold above their heads. they were dressed in robes of cream and red designs. They were followed by two youner boys who had outfits that reminded me of little boy blue but red. One had a teacup kind of container of incense and the other swung a silver bowl on a chain that had burning incense. (this incense was strong and not exactly nice by the way). The boys had an adult helping them. Then next was the statue on an intricate stand set on top what looked like a table with a cloth over the top of it. The older men were positioned under this table and walked in sinc amazingly like the armed services. I would guess there was about 25 men underneath and they were pretty good as they had to make some pretty tight turns in these small streets. People followed singing songs and they would stop when they entered new streets and the men then set the table down and I believe there was a wooden piece seperating the rows that they could sit on, as they never came out. That had to be a pretty heavy task. I was told that they carried the statue to a convent had a service then walked it back again. Then in the streets people threw flower petals from their windows as the stature was brought back to the small church. I had to leave for the bus station to catch a bus to juarez that morning so I didn´t get to see the afternoon part of the ceremony.

Facts: first this statue originated from a church that is near my house and is pretty small, second one of the men that carried the statue from under the table was my host father so it was a pretty neat sight to see. I will try to get some pictures to share.