Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Los Patronales

In Panama most or all towns have a patron saint. Ours is San Antonio de Padua. Every saint has his or her day of the year. The nine days leading up to this day are called the novena and they have church in a different part of town every evening leading up to the big day. On the big day they have church in the morning and activities the rest of the day. For us the next activity was the feria. The first picture shows all of the fruits, vegetables, and other produce that people brought to sell at the feria. This was the nicest one we have seen in our community. Usually they all show up with their stuff in bags and then they just pass them back and forth because they know who wants what and then everything is gone and Lee and I are left trying to figure out what just happened. This time we could tell when it had started and Lee got up there in time to get some avacados and a papaya.

This is the after picture. Everything was sold, even the bananas and platanos that were left hanging
After the feria there is a little parade through the center of town. They were really excited that we were taking pictures of it because they have never had pictures of it before so we are going to print some out for them.

2 comments:

Tony and Susan said...

that's really neat! and i guess they don't take too many pictures, do they? such unique experiences!! love ya!

Anonymous said...

in the feria picture, there are several bottles and jugs on the ground. they are full of water. after the service, the priest will bless these, after which the water becomes holy water and is then used however people use holy water.