Janal Pixan and Ruta de Dulces

By -
We started the day at the Merida English Library returning our (mostly overdue) books and happened to catch a Janal Pixan celebration. 








That evening was the first of a couple of Halloween trick-or-treat activities I read about online. There's another even bigger one next week. James was coming down with a cold and wanted to stay home. Tom is obviously hopping along on one foot and navigating Mexican sidewalks is tough enough in the daylight, nevermind at night, so he opted out. So it was just Joseph and me tonight.


Joseph didn't mind. He was just really really really psyched to show off his Halloween costume.




I think I probably wrote the same thing last year, but it strikes me again that Halloween trick-or-treating is almost perfectly designed to hit the center circle of the Venn diagram of "stuff Mexicans love": family activities, costumes, scary stuff, staying up late, sugar, elaborate costumes, superheroes and anime, face paint, skulls and skeletons. There's some backlash against it. In fact, the first Catrinas parade in 2014 (a year before the staged one everybody saw in the 2015 Bond film, "Spectre," was specifically an anti-Halloween activity. But Halloween was inevitable ... it just hits that sweet spot too, too well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Independence Month party continues

By -
Image
23 Sept: Ward Independence Day party on a Wednesday night (???)  Photospot Games and prizes: Tacos (these ladies are serving up the cochinita) And comradery   We left a little after 8 p.m. because they boys have to be up a 6 a.m. for school, but pics sent out on the ward chat afterwards showed that it turned into a dance party around 10 p.m.! 24 Sept: Neighborhood celebration. We live in a section of town called Chuburná de Hidalgo which used to be its own city. As part of the general patriotic goings-on of the month, they had a history celebration in the town square tonight. Dancers, music, people selling treats, and a slideshow by a local historian. This is also the park where Joseph's parkour class also sometimes comes out to do outdoor practices. So imagine Joseph doing flips off that blue wall. You can share in some of my heart attacks. 25 Sept: And as long as we're celebrating, it's my birthday! 26 Sept: Merida is about 20 minutes away from Progresso beach. The big ...
Read more

Our soul-destroying bathroom remodel in excruciating detail: Nearly done

By -
Image
Lisa writes: Home stretch! I am so confident that this project will be DONE soon that I went ahead and sent out invitations to all our neighbors for our annual block party (May 22, 5-8 p.m. You should come!) Would a person with a non-functioning bathroom do that? I think not. All that's left is this here vent cover... And the bathroom mirror. The countertop, she is lovely, non? As is the unusually high faucet. All the better for Tom to stick his head under as part of his daily ablutions. Please note the one-handed toilet paper holder, and the tiling on the side of the vanity. Yes, Earl tiled the side of the vanity to match the walls. This is because Earl is (a) a perfectionist, (b) cwazy, or (c) Earl has too large a gun collection for me to comment. Light fixture. The hole in the wall is the previous location of the old light. Everything in this bathroom is high and tall: high vanity, extra thick counter top, extra tall shower doors, extra high mounted light fixture. The overall ef...
Read more

"If I had known, I would have become a locksmith." Albert Einstein

By -
Lisa writes: We had friends visit for lunch yesterday, and while we boring grown-ups talked and talked at the table, the 5 and 3 year old explored the house and found the stationary bicycle. Moments later, the 5 and 3 year old began fighting and crying over the stationary bicycle so I, in my infinite wisdom, pushed the "lock" button on the doorknob of that room and closed the door. Problem solved ... until later that night when we wanted to open the door. There is a little hole on the exterior knob which, presumably, you stick some sort of implement into to unlock the door, but we lack this implement and nothing else in the house -- and I mean NOTHING, 'cause we tried EVERYTHING -- will work. Tom loves me anyway, and we will both love whomever we find at Home Depot tonight who can point us to the right tool.
Read more