When we finished class on Friday, Luis invited me, in Spanish, to attend a ceremony involving his brother and his brother's wife on Saturday morning at a nearby church. At least that's the way I heard the invitation. I wasn't sure what the ceremony would be, but I grateful accepted the invitation.
On Saturday morning I arrived at the church at the agreed upon time and was greeted by Luis, his wife, his brother and his brother's wife. Luis was holding a baby in his arms. I saw other families with babies. Quick witted as I am, I figured out the ceremony was the baptism of Luis' niece, for whom he and his wife would named godparents.
The ceremony was a mass baptism of about two dozen babies. The priest visited each of the families while they stood in the pews, said a few words, blessed the babies' with holy water and anointed their heads with a sacred oil. Then each family went up to the baptism font and the baby's head was duly dunked. All this was accompanied by lots of smiles and photos and the babies seemed to tolerate the attention well enough. A very happy occasion to brighten up my Saturday morning.
After the baptism was over, Luis' asked me if I would like to join them for lunch and I again gratefully accepted his invitation. My American brain figured that I would be going to lunch with the immediate family in attendance at the ceremony, perhaps 10 people including me. On the ride to lunch the fact that I was in Mexico and that families are big and important kicked in. Lunch turned out to be an all-afternoon party for 130 family members!
I enjoyed myself and felt very honored to have been invited. The food was great and Luis and I snuck out to the store next door and bought a couple six packs of beer, it being an otherwise alcohol-free event. (I felt a little guilty about imbibing, but it was Luis' idea and it would have been rude of me not to!) I conversed in my halting Spanish with other guests, spending a good amount of time struggling to talk about our respective careers with Luis' father, a retired professor of engineering from the university, now with a small consulting practice in partnership with Luis' brother.
The fiesta was mostly oriented towards children, with a jumper on the lawn outside and an impressive Barra de Dulces (Sweets Bar) with a huge selection of candy and confections. The big event of the fiesta was the tossing of coins to the kids who scrambled to catch and pick them up off there floor- click here to watch a brief video.
This is my second family party in Mexico and I have never felt so welcome and part of the family as quickly as I have here. I'm so grateful to Luis for inviting me and to his family for their sincere hospitality. It was indeed a special pleasure.
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| Luis (in white) with the baptismee, Alissa, her parents and his wife. |
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