Friday, April 14, 2006

Let's go on a Church Crawl!!

It’s strange but I now realize that this is the first Easter that I have been in Brindisi. It came to me last night when I was surprised to see EVERYONE out until well after midnight. They were all out doing a “Church Crawl” (I’m patenting this phrase). Some of my Catholic friends said they were going around to the churches last night. Considering they were starting at 9:30 PM I knew they weren’t going to mass so I decided to see what was going on.

I don’t know if Catholics in the US do this but on Giovedi Santo (Saint Thursday) the Catholics in town go around and see as many churches as they can. There were tons of people out going from church to church. Parking was stacked up near any church and traffic was almost standing still in places. You can go into the old part of town and walk from church to church but there are others around in other quartieri (quarters or districts) that require a car. Last night was also kind of cold (not to me) so people were trying to drive and park as close to the church as possible. In the end we saw 7 churches, which is not very many but they were interesting to me because I don’t think I’ve been inside any of them. Also I was amazed at what is hiding behind some plane looking walls that I walk past almost everyday. Of course all the churches were cleaned up and looking their best for this night. It’s a good chance to see what the other parishes have done.

You’ll notice that I saw 7 churches because it’s good luck to see an odd number or churches and bad luck to see an even number. Also you’re supposed to have better fortune the more you see. Since I have never done this before, my fortune should go through the roof, but then I’m not Catholic so maybe it won’t work. Now it’s Good Friday but we don’t get this day off like in States. I think schools are closed here because traffic was very light this morning. There was more traffic at midnight last night then there was at 8:00 AM this morning.

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