from the edge of the deep green sea

+=

A little background info…I really don’t know the story that well, but from what I recall from my religion classes in school, once in Cartago this girl found a small figurine of the Virgin Mary. She took it to the priest and it was put on a church or something. The next day, the statuette was missing and people were like “WTF?”.
Short short version: later on, the kid found the statuette in the same place where she originally had found it and regardless on how many times they took it back, it magically disappeared from the church and appeared where it was originally found [insert twilight zone theme here].

Alas, instead of trying to find the asshole who was playing the joke of moving the statuette back and stoning him to death, the people did what they usually do when they cannot explain something: they worshipped it. They decided the virgin statuette, dubbed “La Negrita” (the little black woman, due to it’s dark appearance) was sacred and they should build a church where it was originally found. If you really would like to know the details on the story, I recommend looking elsewhere, this is what I vaguely remember and odds are that I messed up somewhere along the lines…anyhow…

Costa Rican tradition for 200 years has been to walk from wherever the hell you may be to the Church in Cartago on August 2nd, to show respect for the “Negrita” and as a side-effect to request some favor or thank god for something. This really is a strange phenomenon, but quite popular nonetheless. People from far away walk and gather at the Church. Some even go to the extent of doing the whole trajectory on their knees. The belief and what I think about it is well beyond the scope of this post (I think it’s bullshit that they adore a symbol, isn’t that against one of their commandments?), but a headline caught my attention today:

“The Romería has been cancelled because of the AH1N1 virus” (http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2009/julio/22/pais2034641.html)

I think this is silly, they should not cancel it al all. I mean, can you imagine a god that would allow people to get infected with a deadly virus on their way to worship his sacred mother? That would never happen, at least, not in the good book.

So to the sheeple that have followed this tradition generation after generation, I can only say: “go for it”. Show us that you truly have faith in your saviour and show us that you are not afraid of dying in order to thank or praise the Almighty’s mother.

I leave you with Bill Maher on something quite similar: