My garden, my house, and the Day of the Devil ……………

(Videos only available if you vie the blog within the blog website!  Click title of blog to go the the website!)

Some formatting problems this week, apologies in advance ~ I am totally in the hands of Google ~ and like so many "user friendly" programmes one IT decides what you want trying to change things just makes matters worse!

Hola!

My garden, my house, and the  Day of the Devil ……………

Finally I found a cyber café with a reasonably strong signal so I could upload my videos ~ so I have learned keep the videos short (in future)……

So, I have been in my little yellow house ~ mi piquita casa amarilla (PCA) ~ for 10 days and am loving it. A friend has helped me to rearrange the furniture and apart from an internal repaint I have the place pretty much right for me. Though I had hoped to get the sofa indoors, though everybody says that once this slightly cold spell has passed, I will be thankful of somewhere comfortable to sit outside!

Bought some gardening tools and have started splitting the vast numbers of irises and bromeliads. And I bought a large spade to start work in what will be the vegetable garden.  I shall have the time for this as there is little happening at CasaSito for the next month before things kick off at the end of January.

Getting re-used to the idea of washing the dishes in cold water using specially formulated washing powder, the only source of hot water I have in the house is the shower unit powered by a “widow maker”  basically a unit containing an electric coil that heats up as soon as a water flow is detected – clever!  The widow maker comes from the fact that many people fail to keep them maintained and the combination of electricity and water and a naked body standing under the unit……..

This week I have had new security lights in the garden the TV now boasts 102 channels of mainly dubbed rubbish no BBC L but very useful for improving the Spanish.

The big event of the week was ……..

“The day of the Devil”

Street food was in abundance for the Fiesta which actually goes on for three days, the main place itis celebrated is the  Ciudad Vieja, with Antigua running a close second.

The "Virgin" with an interesting black angel .....

The Devil getting ready to go out with a bang!

Well, it felt like we were all attending a medieval witch burning, much shouting and clapping as bits of the devil fell off in a burst of sparks and flames, but the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dec 8) would not be complete without the ritual devil burning the evening before!

Just about all of Antigua turned out for this, TV cameras the lot!    

All ready and waiting for the 6 o’clock sharp immolation! 

At around 5.50 one of the good burghers of Antigua dressed in 18th Century costume gave a diverting speech 

about the significance of the ceremony and after much laughter, suddenly it all started! 

Mephistopheles was absolutely packed with fire crackers and he was turned to ask in under 5 minutes! 

But why, WHY I hear you cry …… well, here’s the official line….. 

All year long he hides under the bed or in the junk piled up in the corner, casting misfortune or worse on helpless mortals. But on Wednesday, December 7, at 6 p.m. sharp, the Devil gets his comeuppance, as he is tossed out of the house along with the trash and set ablaze in the Quema del Diablo (Burning of the Devil), a tradition in many Guatemalan towns that literally sparks the beginning of the Christmas Season.

The origins of the Quema del Diablo in Guatemala can be traced to colonial times, when the well-to-do adorned the fronts of their homes with elaborate lanterns on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, explains historian Miguel Álvarez Arévalo. Unable to afford lanterns, poor denizens instead lit bonfires made of kindling and the trash from their homes. The practice over time evolved into the Quema del Diablo.

How the Devil entered the picture is the subject of some debate, according to eminent historian Celso A. Lara Figueroa. One account claims that the sermons of priests describing how the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception squashed the head of the Devil established the link. What is clear, however, is that the fires, viewed in many cultures as having a purifying effect, came to symbolize the triumph of Good over Evil.

It’s a crazy day people dressed as the devil , playing silly jokes, like wishing everybody they meet in the 

street “Feliz Compleaños” (Happy Birthday), people try to wear red in “honour” of the devil, I sported a 

red tee shirt!  I didn’t need to play silly jokes as my Spanish lesson contains enough to laugh about!  

This all took place 200 yards from my Casa as it is held outside the Ruins of the Convent of the Immaculate 

Conception – except this year they moved up the road a bit as they finally realised that lighting a huge bonfire 

25 yards in front of petrol station was probably not a clever idea!

Anyways it was a great way to spend an hour, I had invited Jacob (USA) and Marion (Germany) two people 

staying a the CasaSito volunteers house round to my “little yellow house”  for dinner so the evening 

was very jolly.

Sadly we missed the Dance of the Devils in which a lunatic wears a frame packed with firecrakers

amd runs round the streets scaring the "life" out of people!  This has to be one of the craziest 

dances of the world.

Have a friend staying for the weekend, so Sunday (today) we plan to play tourists and to visit some of the sights!

Oh yes, the bad news is Advocado tree has an infection, and I am advised to get it fumigated at some point 

in time, the good news is, that the insects causing the problem mean the tree is visited by a vast array of 

beautiful birds looking for a free lunch!

Tody Flycatcher

Barred Antshrike

Mourning Dove

Becard 

Hasta una semana, amigos!