Amor y Amistad

As I understand it, they don't celebrate Valentines Day here in Mexico. Instead, February 14th is celebrated as "Dia Del Amor Y Amistad" -- the day of love and friendship. As the name suggests, the focus is not just on romantic love but on more general types of affection (which makes it a far less weird holiday for preschools to be celebrating, but I digress). Here in Oaxaca, it is celebrated as a big party, with music and chocolate and revelry.

And balloons. Lots of balloons. Now, I'm pretty sure that on a normal day Oaxaca has the largest number of balloon vendors per capita anywhere on the planet. But yesterday things kicked it up a notch or three. Throughout town, you could not walk more than ten yards without passing someone with a huge set of balloons for sale -- hearts and stars and "Te Quieres" and "Mil Besos" and the like, in addition to the normal balloons featuring superheroes and Elmo and Dora. There were also people selling flowers and even the people who normally sell bubblegum and scarves where pitching it as a special gift for Dia Del Amor y Amistad.

We spent some time in the zocalo, and it was more crowded than I have seen it since New Years Eve, including one stage set up with senior citizens doing Guelaguetza dancing and another stage set up where it appeared that a series of Quincenera girls were doing elaborately choreographed dance routines with the same set of five male dancers -- who later put on masks and started dancing to Gangnam Style, because we haven't left American civilization THAT far behind. We quickly ducked into a museum in search of a bano and it was filled with a salsa band and many many people. We also saw a number of mariachi bands wandering the zocalo, but unfortunately did not get to hear any of them play.

All in all, it was a pretty wild party (and from what we heard from our apartment it went on far past our early bedtime), but what else would one expect from this fun city.

Meircoles de Ceniza

Despite the fact that Mexico is a very Catholic country, and the church is a strong part of many different aspects of the life and culture here in Oaxaca (not least of which are some of the many fiestas that we have already posted about as well as some that we might get around to posting about later), I thought it was interesting to note that I did not see a single person with ashes on their forehead today.

Feria

Sunday improved when E and went out and discovered that the Friday night tiangui was set up again. It's a huge fair with rides and food and shopping. Pretty much an impossible place with a preschooler who wants everything now. But I was ready to be indulgent to assuage my Three Kings Day guilt. I only bought one toy, but was happy to say yes to bounce houses and double-decker trampolines. Those things make bedtime a lot easier, because they wear him out. My little adrenaline junkie loved this baby rollercoaster. The second time was completely handsfree.

Happy Dia de Los Reyes

We found this little Rosca de Reyes cake at our grocery store last night, for about a dollar.

We have no presents. I feel like a terrible mother.

I never found a way to get away by myself to buy the little toys that E has asked for over and over, patiently being told to wait for weeks.

I'm sick of spending every day food shopping. And still not having what I need.

I'm frustrated with the fact that I can't find ground pepper, so everything I make has no taste.

I've bought 3 different kinds of salt and nothing is salty in the right way.

Where am I going to find the time to go all the way across town to the superstore that supposedly has international ingredients?

Mission Accomplished

The goals of this sabbatical trip to Oaxaca were (in no particular order, unless you helped fund my trip in which case these are definitely in order):

1) Do math with collaborators here
2) Eat so much mole and so many tacos that my belly hurts
3) See the amazing Night of the Radishes festivities
4) Stalk Rick Bayless, the amazing chef who always blogs and tweets about his traditional family holiday vacation to Oaxaca.

While I have yet to start number (1), I am working hard on number (2) and we accomplished the last two goals in a single night last week. Here is photographic evidence!

Tuna

In the five days we have spent in Oaxaca so far, we have attended many festivals and performances and celebrations.  Some of these have been Christmas related, and many others have just been connected to the joy of the city as this is a city that loves to celebrate.  One of the best discoveries we have made so far is a type of music I was previously unfamiliar with, called Tuna.  A little googling indicates that it descends from traditional Basque music, but it seems to be quite popular here in Oaxaca, as we stumbled across a group performing in the street the other night, and on Christmas night there were two competing Tuna Christmas Concerts in different churches.   We chose to go to one by Tuna Real Universtaria (http://www.uabjo.mx/dominios/tuna/), a group of nearly two dozen college students playing a variety of guitars, accordians, drums, and tambourines -- one guy even did backflips down the center of the church as he played the tambourine!

Last night they played holiday songs, including such favorites as Santa Claus llego a la Ciudad, Blanca Navidad, and the big crowd pleaser Los Peces En El Rio, long with a choir of children and adults.  The night ended with the entire church singing 'Noche De Paz' together.

There are many reasons why I would encourage you to come to Oaxaca for Christmas, but this type of concert was high on the list.

Christmas in Oaxaca

After a quiet day, the party continued on the zocalo for a third night. Families, vendors of ponche, balloons, scarves, corn, hot cakes.