Random Easter Story
Saturday, March 8th, 2008At Spanish school my teacher Rebecca would break up our lessons with “conversations”. It helped get my ear tuned to Spanish verbs. Rebecca was telling me about semana santa in san pedro which includes a laundry list of processions, religious ceremonies and special foods. Then it’s my turn. What is easter like in the USA? I said people attend Sunday mass/services (yeah, and….) and have an easter meal (which is….) which is ham and…..ham and…..whatever else one might want.
Let me tell you, that seemed like an underwhelming account of easter in the US, so grasping for straws I decided to attempt a description of the easter bunny – in really bad Spanish. He’s a make-believe cangrejo – oops, no not a crab – a canejo and he hides colored eggs for kids to find. Some eggs are real and painted and others are plastic with treats inside them. Yes, children believe he is real. I’m not sure how much sense this made but I realized that even if I did a pretty good job of communicating, it is a pretty strange ritual. A giant rabbit hiding eggs? Why not a giant chicken? I’m sure I learned this somewhere but I don’t remember.
Random Observation
Apparently people in latin America consider ice cream appropriate for all-day consumption. It is not at all uncommon to see children with ice cream cones for breakfast. But it’s probably not any worse than a bowl of count chocula, huh?
Peggy Rehm