Rite of Spring

Someone once quipped that cultures only need a word for “religion” when they no longer have one. Aside from our brief encounters with indigenous tribes, no other people I’ve lived among have less need for the word religion than Mexicans. Here there is life, and it is always a celebration.

It feels the opposite of where we come from. You want to bring it back with you when you leave, but I don’t think that’s possible. All you ever get to take with you are memories.

Halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox lies a day that has long been celebrated in various forms as the “return of the light”. Around the British Isles it’s known as Imbolic. Farther south it fell close enough to forty days after Christmas that it merged with existing pagan traditions and become Candlemas.

Candelaria, as it’s called around here, is not celebrated in the States anymore, but in San Miguel it’s going strong. Like most things here it’s half Catholic, half indigenous and falls such that it marks roughly the beginning of spring. To celebrate there’s an indigenous ceremony at the park, with a blessing of the seeds to future harvests, and a huge plant sale.

The park is transformed into an outdoor arboretum. Plant vendors line the walkways and little kids push wagon loads of plants through the park to waiting cars on the street. And of course there’s food. Any time three or more people gather in Mexico, someone materializes bearing food.

We’re not great with plants. We took the kids to a nursery to get some plants for the pots we gave them for Christmas and by Candlelaria they were already dead. We bought a few more at the plant sale, but um, cough, one of those is already mostly dead as I write this. Not sure what’s wrong with us, perhaps we’re just not plant people. Animals seem drawn to us though, so at least there’s that.

It is warming up here. Perhaps our plants will do better going forward. I doubt it though. All you ever get to take is your memory. Like this memory, which has an explanation, but which I like better without it.