El Salvador del Mundo

Fiestas Agostinas, the August Festivals, is a week of vacation in El Salvador leading up to the Church feast of the Transfiguration of El Salvador, for which this country is named (obviously a big deal). I arrived just at the culmination to experience the amusingly poignant mixing of elements, secular and spiritual.

Hours after meeting my host family, we watched the country´s Catholic TV station broadcast the slow procession of Christ´s statue carried on a bed by a score of men, toward the national Cathedral in the central square. Absolute hoards of people surrounding it, for hours. It was dark when they reached the cathedral, where the Archbishop gave a brief homily, and then the statue was somehow descended "el bajar" into a huge globe resting on pillars, two stories high above the crowd. Minutes later, Christ reappears transfigured from a purple robe to shining white...at which point the people burst into ecstatic cheering and singing. Doña follows along from our living room view.

The next day, attended the solemn feast day Mass, also in front of the Cathedral with 10s of thousands standing in the balmy sun. I may have been imagining it, but I think I miraculously understood a good bit of the Archbishop´s homily, which focused on our need to concretely transfigure the world from one of oppression to one of peace. (Fist-pump to the land of lib theo) At communion, the congregation was instructed to stay in their place. "We (the ministers) will come to you." Beautiful.

Final day of feasting was a repeat of old experiences at my county fair. Except churros in place of elephant ears. The Salvadorans call it a "consuma," which seems an appropriate name for the enormous variety of "things" pawned off there. Fair games and rides naturally included, and a good once-a-year time for all.

One of the nights included fireworks, lit above a monument to El Salvador del Mundo at one of the city´s main traffic roundabouts. Far surpassing SJ´s Venetian display, this was the most elaborate showing I´ve ever seen. Yet, we seemed among only a small group of spectators. Personally, I´m not a huge fan of fireworks, and here, I cannot help but think how other explosions were so recently here...the bombs bursting in air.