Sunday, February 14, 2010

Puebla addendum


I forgot to post these when I was writing about Puebla, Mexico the other day. Every Sunday, outside the beautiful Church of San Francisco, people line up to have their new vehicles blessed. The priest comes out to sprinkle holy water (on the engine, I believe!) and give a blessing. Some people dress up their new cars with flowers. Here's a photo of the line up the Sunday we were there:

8 comments:

  1. Very interesting :)
    In fact, in Sri Lanka also there is a somewhat similar tradition. Wehn people buy a new car, they go to a place called Katharagama - A sacred temple in down south to get blessings.

    Saw your Sri Lankan tour blog too. Very nice :)

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  2. Ha ha I see Kirigalpoththa beat me to it. I think there is one other place here in Sri Lanka that people go to bless their cars - Bellanwilla temple in the outskirts of Colombo.

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  3. Anonymous5:57 am

    Interesting! I hope that the folks in Mexico City get theirs blessed, too. With that many people, I'm sure there are lots of accidents.

    Your aerial pictures were gorgeous! I've been there, but I must have had an aisle seat that trip!

    The boa. . . NOa!!! :)

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  4. Even better, I have BEEN to Katharagama!! It was a beautiful experience and I found it almost magical. I think Canadians could learn from this... there are a lot of scary drivers around here.

    Marylee, I suspect the car-blessing is Mexico-wide. I was told Mexico is about 90% Catholic.

    I thought the aerial shots turned out pretty well, since I was shooting with my little camera through a dirty window! :)

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  5. Anonymous6:02 pm

    I didn't get around to making a teeny tiny correction in your previous entry about the church. this one in the picture is the San Francisco church. Santo Domingo is the one with the capilla de rosario...with the "mexican baroque" gold etc. The san francisco church is the one with the mummy and, as you've correctly explained here, the car blessing. and they actually do shake the holy water thing all over the car...including the interior. :) AND it only costs about 50 pesos (about 4CND)...of course the priest does not bring up money, but you are expected to give something.

    the reason they do the car / vehicle blessing here is because the mummy, now officially beatified (for quite a number of years) was instrumental in building many roads in mexico and of course converting (to xtian religion) indigenous people and making a miracle here and there ;)

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  6. Thansk, Dr. Sloth, I've corrected that! I saw last night that I did at least get it right in my travel journal. We saw so many beautiful churches that day, I think they all started melding together in my mind. Francis is the mummy, no?

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  7. Agree Sue!

    The way people drive in SL, we need loads of blessings from 'up above' :D

    Glad you have seen Katharagama!!

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  8. Some of the drivers around here could do with blessings too. In Ottawa the other day, I saw a guy driving a pick-up truck while holding a cell-phone in one hand and a map in the other. (It's illegal in this province to drive while using a hand-held phone.)

    I want to go back to SL in 2014, if not sooner.

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!