Panamanian Holy Week

So, in honor of my last Holy week in Panama (I think "my last.......in Panama may make frequent appearances on my blog between now and May), I wanted to make a tribute to some of the cultural "rules" that govern Panamanian Holy Week. Living in a catholic country makes a difference one would assume, but living in a cosmopolitan city takes away some of the pomp and circumstance of superstitions: traditions that still live on strong in the countryside are merely "optional" in the city. However, regardless of where you hail from, here are a few things you arent supposed to do during Holy Week here in Panama.

Parents tell their children that during Holy Week (especially Good Friday) that they shouldn't:

1. Wash their hair. You might turn into a mermaid.
2. Swim. You might turn into a fish.
3. Climb a tree. You might turn into a monkey.

As a good citizen, you shouldn't:

1. Play loud music. Silence is the best way to meditate on Christ's passion.
2. Laugh outloud. Joy is not to be tolerated until Sunday Morning.
3. Do any kind of strenuous work. Convienent that Friday is a national holiday, becuase you are supposed to just sit in your house.
4. Eat Meat. It goes to the whole "make a sacrifice for lent" so the agricultural sector is sacrificed as meat is packaged and shipped off as the traditional sacrifice.
5. Start a fire. Whether you are an arsonist or just want to light your stove, too bad. NO FIRE during Holy Week. This one, I am still working on the explanation.

While I dont claim that this list be exhuastive, it is all the things I have learned about living through a "Veirnes Santo" and Holy week in general. How I learned all this, I might add, was not through typical, day to day conversation. Oh no. There was the mad neighbor yelling that I was playing music that I learned rule 1(funny that she was yelling when the rule calls for silence. Humm). It was a co-worker who was trying so hard not to laugh at jokes that taught me number 2. Rule 4 came today when I went to a restuarant to buy lunch, two minutes before they closed, and the only option left was MEAT, becuase clearly, who is going to buy meat today?

So while I joke, I can see why these traditions are important. As Ruben Dario wrote in his poem criticizing Roosevelt and the Imperialistic United States in General: "And, although you count on everything, you lack one thing: God!" Where spirituality is still an important value, these traditions make sense. And while some people might have lost track of what the traditions mean, while others apply them to an extreme (I doubt my children will turn to monkeys, but it would be an easy way to get my children to behave for at least one week of the year), and I am sure that my lutehran friends would launch into some speech about guilt being played up as a penitence, it is nice to see that religious traditions still have some importance.

Happy Easter!