Easter Traditions

Amy and I woke up early and took off for the Easter town parade. We wanted to see the people doing the work on their manmade sand carpets before they were walked over. The manmade carpets are for the statues to be paraded on and people from all over come to watch. Each family has been given a portion of the street to design and they did a wonderful job. They section out parts of the street from one catholic church to the other. One is on a very step hill and the other in the park right smack downtown. Many catholics had decorated their doors for the Jesus statue to bless as they went by. It was a very interesting traditional experince they have kept for many years. San Cristobal has the longest carpet display in Gautamala. I was extremely impressed with the colors and the effort that went into each section. They had a statue of Jesus carring the cross and a statue of St. John. Now St. John was carried by four men and for some reason he would travel down the street to the other catholic church like 20 or more times (back and forth). Jesus's statue was carried by about twenty men. Everything was so interesting and it may take some time to grasp all the meaning. Some of the men who were dressed up were really not into it and you could tell. We found Edgar who is a teacher at the school and he tried to explain more to us. He was very kind and showed us more about their traditions. I don't understand why they have this tradtion. It was a great symbolism to me of watching Jesus come down the street with a big cross and knowing he didn't do it for just us Americans. He died for all of us. He came for all men so they may know and love Him.
Later, we had invited several of our Guatamalan friends over to watch a movie. After the movie, Amy and I invited them to dye some Easter eggs with us. They looked at us like we were crazy. Even called us "Loco" (crazy). I couldn't believe it. They asked us why we dyed them. All I could think to say was it's our tradition. Isn't that interesting. Before I went downtown my thoughts were of them being idol worshipers and not grasping the understanding of Jesus. Yet when we went down there several of their carpets said "Jesus Vive" (Jesus Lives). I don't think I made an egg say that even though we did blow out some of their yokes. Happy Easter!!