Category Archives: celebration
Piñatas Peludas
Today is Spanish Friday so this post is in Spanish. If you participated in Spanish Friday on your own blog, leave your link in comments. English translation is below!
Ustedes ya saben que me encantan las piñatas, (Bueno ¿Qué tipo de persona sin corazón no le gusta de ellas?)
Pero, la semana pasada encontré unas piñatas que nunca vi antes. Las piñatas eran bien grandes pero la cosa que me impresiono más era que las piñatas eran peludas – ¡sí! Peludas!
Les voy a enseñar para que me entiendan mejor qué estoy diciendo.
Ya ven que no estoy loca y tenía razón! Las piñatas son peludas, ¿vá?
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
You all already know that I love piñatas, (well, what sort of heartless person doesn’t like them?)
However, the other week I found some piñatas that I had never seen before. The piñatas were kind of big but the thing that impressed me most was that the piñatas were furry – yes! Furry!
I’ll show you so you have a better idea of what I mean.
You see, I’m not crazy, I was right! The piñatas are furry, are they not?
4th of July Reminder
It’s almost the 4th of July, gente. You know what that means, right?
Image source: Paul Long
Time to stock up on fireworks so you have cuetes to set off later this year on Noche Buena.
Image source: Guillermo Flores
Piñata Grande!
Today is Spanish Friday so this post is in Spanish. If you participated in Spanish Friday on your own blog, leave your link in comments. English translation is in italics!
Un día yo estaba buscando fotos de una piñata cuando encontré esta foto.
One day I was looking for photos of a piñata when I found this.
Image source: Christopher Thompson
Yo no podía creer lo que veía y decidí seguir investigando.
I couldn’t believe my eyes and decided to investigate further.
Image source: Christopher Thompson
Aparentemente esta piñata estableció un récord mundial. La piñata fue construida en Filadelfia por Carnival Cruise Lines en 2008. Era casi seis pisos de altura.
Apparently this piñata set a world record. The piñata was constructed in Philadelphia by Carnival Cruise Lines in 2008. It was almost 6 stories tall.
Image source: Christopher Thompson
La pregunta importante: ¿Habia dulces en la piñata? ¡Sí! … y caos rodeó el evento, (igual que si era una fiesta de cumpleaños!) Disfrute!
The important question: Was there candy in the piñata? Yes! … and chaos surrounded the event, (just like it would at a child’s birthday party!) Enjoy!
La emoción en rumbo al evento y, a continuación, la decepción.
The excitement leading up to the event, and then, disappointment.
Noticias sobre cómo la policía detuvo el truco de publicidad por razones de seguridad.
News report about how the police stopped the publicity stunt for safety reasons.
Así es como la piñata se rompió finalmente.
How the piñata was ultimately broken.
Esto es como Carnival Cruise Lines utilizaba la piñata en un comercial.
The way Carnival Cruise Lines used the piñata in a commercial.
Fiesta Latina vs. Fiesta Gringa
It’s birthday party season again and one of the more popular posts on Latinaish is Latino vs. Anglo Birthday Party. A Spanish version of this post was even published in the June/July 2010 issue of SerPadres Magazine after being discovered on Tiki Tiki Blog. So here it is for those of you who are new here or who might have missed it!
The Differences Between an Anglo Kid’s Birthday Party and a Latino Kid’s Birthday Party
#1. Who gets to come?
Anglo – Those whose names are written on the invitation.
Latino – Those whose names are written on the invitation, plus their uncles, cousins, and sometimes random neighbors who had nothing better to do that day.
#2. What time should we come?
Anglo – The time is right there on the invitation.
Latino – An hour late, or else the hosts won’t be ready when you arrive.
#3. Food Etiquette
Anglo – Eat only what is given to you. Don’t ask for seconds even if you’re really hungry.
Latino – Eat as much as you want and then ask for plates to take home leftovers for eating later or to bring to family members who didn’t feel like coming.
#4. Singing, dancing, music
Anglo – The only music heard is when the kids sing “Happy Birthday” at cake time. Dancing is rare, but when it happens, it is usually the “Hokey Pokey”.
Latino – WHAT?! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD! … Adults dance Perreo in front of the kids, no importa.
#5. Alcohol?
Anglo – Of course not! What’s wrong with you?! It’s a CHILDREN’S birthday party!
Latino- Claro que sí! … The cerveza is there in the cooler, hermano!
#6. Entertainment
Anglo – A strict schedule of organized activities and games for the children.
Latino – Niños, go play in the street or something. Stop bothering the grown ups! We’ll do the piñata later! Híjole!
#7. What’re we eating?
Anglo – Probably pizza.
Latino – Steak, chicken, rice, beans, salad, tortillas, etc. Load your styrofoam plate up until it’s ready to crack under the weight.
#8. When does the party end?
Anglo – Refer to your invitation. Thank your hosts and excuse yourself on the dot. Clear out!
Latino – Party until everyone’s tired and/or Tío Eduardo passes out on the couch while watching a fútbol game.
_______
Credit: Images by Eric Peacock and Paul Kelly used to create graphic.
Cinco de Mayo Humor
Today is Spanish Friday so this post is in Spanish. If you participated in Spanish Friday on your own blog, leave your link in comments. English translation at the bottom!
Hola gringos! Listos para celebrar cinco de mayo este fin de semana? Bueno, por los que no son gringos, les explico por qué celebramos el aniversario de una batalla en Puebla, México. La mayoría de la gente celebra cinco de mayo en los Estados Unidos no más por tener excusa tomar cerveza, margaritas, y tequila, disfrutar de música mariachi, vestirnos en sombreros y sarapes y comer comida “mexicana” (estilo estado unidense, todo cubierto en queso y salsa.) Eso es!
Y sí, sabemos que somos un poco ridículos – hasta podemos reírnos de nosotros mismos!
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
Hola gringos! Ready to celebrate Cinco de Mayo this weekend? Well, for those of you who aren’t gingos, let me explain to you why we celebrate the anniversary of a battle in Puebla, Mexico. The majority of the people in the United States celebrate Cinco de Mayo just to have an excuse to drink beer, margaritas and tequila, enjoy mariachi music, get dressed up in sombreros and sarapes, and eat “Mexican” food (American-style, all covered in cheese and salsa.) That’s it!
And yes, we know we’re a little ridiculous – we can even laugh at ourselves.
Cascarones vs. Easter Eggs
The first year we made cascarones, I didn’t have any dye so I tried to decorate the entire egg with colored tissue paper and glue. It was messy and they didn’t turn out very pretty, so this year I decided to do it the right way and dye the eggs. I bought your typical $1 kit with colored tablets for egg-dyeing at Easter time – a package that is familiar to me from childhood. However, because these kits are meant for American-style Easter eggs, they come with additional items you don’t need for cascarones which apparently perplexed my 10 year old.
Him: What are these for? [picking up stickers and cardboard egg holders]
Me: We don’t need those. Those are for making American Easter eggs.
Him: You put stickers and these thingies on them before you break them on someone’s head?
Me: No, [laughing] You leave the egg in the shell and cook them – you know hard boiled eggs?
Him: [nods]
Me: Then you dye them, put stickers on them, and these little cardboard thingies are so you can display them until you eat them.
Him: You eat them?! That’s weird!
It kind of boggles my mind that my 10 year old couldn’t remember what regular Easter eggs are – I mean, I made them with them before? When they were little? In the past? Didn’t I?… I don’t remember anymore. Apparently, in recent years I’ve done such a good job of teaching the boys Latin American culture that I now need to step it up with showing them Anglo-American traditions from my own childhood.
Have you been whipped by the devil today?
El Salvador is home to some traditions which can seem funny even to native Salvadorans. This week marks “Semana Santa” (Holy Week) in the Catholic faith, and so today is Lunes Santo, (Holy Monday.)
In a small town called Texistepeque in the department of Santa Ana, Lunes Santo means it is also “El Día de Los Talcigüines” – The word “talcigüines” means “deviled men” in the native language, Nahuatl. Like many traditions in El Salvador and throughout Latin America, the holiday is a result of the mixing of Catholic and indigenous beliefs; this occurred with the arrival of the Spanish and their desire to convert the native people to Catholicism by introducing their religion in ways that would seem familiar to the people.
On “El Día de Los Talcigüines” men dress as devil-like figures and whip people on the streets to absolve them of their sins.
Just make sure that if you ever visit Texistepeque on Holy Monday, you take measures to protect yourself…
dónde cuenta.
____________
Read more: History of El Día de Los Talcigüines and how to take part on Official El Salvador Tourism site.
See more: Slideshow of El Día de Los Talcigüines – La Prensa Gráfica
Image source: Images are still frames taken from video by La Prensa Gráfica.
Celebrando Noche Buena
Today is Spanish Friday so this post is in Spanish. If you participated in Spanish Friday on your own blog, leave your link in comments. Scroll down for English translation!
En este tiempo del año me he dado cuenta de que Carlos se pone un poco deprimido. A pesar de que celebramos la Navidad en todos los sentidos imaginables, en Noche Buena nunca hicimos más que envolver los regalos me olvidé de envolver, ir a un servicio religioso, y luego tratar de empujar a los niños a la cama con las amenazas de que Santa Claus se saltará nuestra casa.
En El Salvador, Noche Buena se celebra a lo grande – con música, cuetes, fiestas y todo, así que la tranquilidad de la Noche Buena en los Estados Unidos parece deprimente en comparación.
Este año, ya que no podemos estar en El Salvador, me decidí traer un poco de El Salvador a nuestra casa. Este año vamos a celebrar Noche Buena, estilo salvadoreño.
Los tamales que usualmente hago por Navidad, voy a hacer un día temprano.
Compré una piñata y dulces por llenarla.
(La unica cosa es que, las piñatas estilo estrella se supone tienen siete puntos para representar los siete pecados. Esta piñata tiene sólo seis…Entonces, quedamos con uno.)
También hice papel picado por dar a la casa más ambiente.
He encontrado algunos cuetes que no usamos en el día de la independencia.
Aunque Carlos y yo ya intercambiamos regalos, le compré uno regalito extra para que tenga algo por abrir.
Y me aseguré que mi estación de música cumbia esta listo en Pandora.com.
La única cosa es que ahora, mirando mi casa, me hace reír. Me había olvidado de cierto episodio de I Love Lucy hasta ahora. Recuerda aquel en el que Lucy trata de decorar su apartamento como Cuba para Ricky? (Salvo que se parecía a México, pero de todos modos…)
Cuando la gente dijo que “el amor te vuelve loco” – Nunca pensé que querían decir clínicamente, pero la prueba está en la piñata que está colgada en mi sala.
¡Felices fiestas, amigos!
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
This time of year I’ve noticed that Carlos gets a little depressed. Even though we celebrate Christmas in every way imaginable, Christmas Eve has never been spent doing more than wrapping gifts I forgot to wrap, going to a religious service, and then trying to shove the kids off to bed with threats that Santa Claus will skip our house.
In El Salvador, Christmas Eve is celebrated in a big way – with music, fireworks, parties and everything, so the quiet of Christmas Eve in the United States seems depressing in comparison.
This year, since we can’t go to El Salvador, I decided to bring a little El Salvador to our house. This year, we’ll celebrate Christmas Eve, Salvadoran-style.
The tamales I usually make for Christmas, I’ll make one day early.
I bought a piñata and candies to fill it.
(The only thing is, the star-shaped piñatas are supposed to have seven points to represent the seven sins. This piñata has only six points, so I guess we get to keep one.)
I also made papel picado to give the house more ambiance.
I found some fireworks we didn’t use on Independence Day.
Even though Carlos and I exchanged gifts early, I bought him a little extra one so he has something to open.
And I made sure that my cumbia music station is ready on Pandora.com.
The only thing now is, looking around my house, it makes me laugh. I had forgotten about a certain episode of I Love Lucy until now. Remember the one where Lucy tries to make their apartment look like Cuba for Ricky? (Except that it looked like Mexico, but anyway.)
When people said “love will make you crazy” – I never thought they meant clinically, but the proof is in the piñata hanging in my living room.
¡Felices fiestas, amigos!
Salvadoran Nacimientos vs. American Nativities
Our nativity scene
Nacimientos, or nativities, are something that both Carlos and I grew up with. In my case, the nativity was a simple wooden manger scene with plastic figures: Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus in a bed of straw, an angel, the three wisemen, a cow, a donkey, a couple sheep and their shepherd. My mother always placed the nativity beneath the Christmas tree and my sisters and I were allowed to play with it just like we played with our Barbies or any other toys where we’d act out elaborate storylines while laying on the carpet, completely lost in our own imaginations.
In Carlos’s case, the nacimiento of his childhood took up a large area of their house during the Christmas season. The clay figures included all the same characters we had, plus many more. Salvadoran nacimientos often look more like a bustling city than an intimate scene. No figure is considered inappropriate, from a woman at a pupusería, national soccer players, politicians, drunks, Chavo del 8, and short-skirted cheerleaders with batons known as “cachiporras” to the devil himself.
Carlos’s childhood nativity sounds like a dream come true! I can only imagine how many hours my sisters and I would have played with such a scene – except that Carlos tells me that playing with it was absolutely not allowed.
Now that we’re grown and married with our own household, we put up our own nativity scene. The first year we bought it and put it up, we had an argument about baby Jesus. Carlos couldn’t understand why I put baby Jesus into the manger and I couldn’t understand why he kept taking it out and hiding it. Carlos says that in El Salvador, you don’t put El Niño Jesús in the manger until he’s born. What I was doing – displaying the complete scene with the baby weeks before Christmas – made absolutely no sense to him – (Although cheerleaders attending the birth of Christ apparently makes sense, but I digress.)
For a few years, although I thought it was weird, I let him hide baby Jesus. I also insisted that by his logic, the three kings should be hidden until January, but he ignored me. At this point I must have gotten used to his way of doing things because when I set up the nativity, I handed Jesus over to him without a word and watched him stick him behind a picture frame on a shelf.
This year I’ve tried to make our Nativity a little more Salvadoran. I added a house plant as a palm tree and some rocks from la Libertad, but I definitely want to buy some characters in the years to come. I like the idea of expanding the nativity to look like a town in San Salvador… as long as Carlos let’s me play with it.
What kind of nativity do you have? Do you allow your children to play with the nativity? Why or why not?
Other links to check out:
Los tradicionales nacimientos de barro – Youtube video from ElSalvador.com
Virgen de Guadalupe wallpaper
Feliz Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe. Happy Virgin de Guadalupe Day.
In celebration, I created two desktop wallpapers of la Virgencita to choose from. They are completely free to download.
Directions:
Select the wallpaper you like and click to enlarge.
Right click and select “Set as Desktop Background.
Virgen de Guadalupe - Blue/White theme
Virgen de Guadalupe - bandera mexicana theme
When you’re done, you can check out my post about the Virgin of Guadalupe from last year or go to the website of the Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe in Mexico to send a prayer to the Virgen de Guadalupe. All petitions sent through the website will be placed at the feet de Nuestra Señora in the temple that she asked to be built on Tepeyac. At mass each morning, the petitions are prayed for by clergy.
Que la Virgen morena les cuide, hermanos.
