“It’s thanks to the king, our Lord Jesus Christ,” said Hidalgo, who has been running a Mexican palm weaving factory here for half a dozen years with his wife. “We wanted to preserve the memory of this tradition.”
Many Christians around the world will draw a palm tree or other palm trees this weekend, in memory of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, when he tells the gospel to the crowds on the way to scatter branches before him.
At the Catholic Church in Hidalgo, and others across the country where parishioners observe the Easter traditions of most American and European countries, the leaves are woven and woven into intricate patterns for several feet, often decorated with rosaries, ribbons, and images of Jesus or Jesus. of the Saints
It is a celebration not only of faith, but of ancient cultural skills, often related to spring and agricultural rituals, which they want to pass on to younger generations.
Old men and younger boys, some mourning their homework, gathered in the lowest incarnation of Mercury, where the tropical perfume of new palm trees contrasted with the lower freezing temperatures of the evening outside.
Maria Consuelo Palapa came with her 7-year-old son Omar, “to help the first church and teach the boy my traditions” from the Mexican state of Puebla.
“I would like the community to hold this event, to help our church,” Tenorio said as the woven fronds were piled up on a large table in front of her, and many volunteers came over to let some try their hand at the standing craft.
One of the first arrivals was Adriana Mozo, a long-time parishioner but a first-time weaver whose parents immigrated from Mexico.
“I am very proud, but this beast,” he said, pressing the green leaves, fragile and resistant at the same time. He bought one two years ago that is still in use in his dining room. “It doesn’t feel like a connection with God.”
Palms are celebrated in many homes throughout the year, when they are burned to make ashes in the Ash IV celebrations at the beginning of Lent.
“It is a form of sanctioning a pact with the Mexican faithful with the Catholic religion,” said Elio Masferrer, an anthropologist at Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History. “It is a form of social confederation,” especially of migrant communities.
At St. Michael’s Church in Newport, Connecticut, John Quartiano started weaving workshops so that the tradition of nuns brought from Italy almost a century earlier would not die out. This week, she has been in the church up to 12 hours a day, organizing volunteers to sell palm crucifixes for Mass, to help provide lights in the parish.
“We keep the tradition alive as long as we can,” said Quartiano.
Back in Minneapolis, a junior high school principal who lined up an opportunity to learn a new art, designed Tenorio after a mother and daughter duo who remembered seeing artists selling palm tree designs outside churches in their hometown of Puebla.
“I was raised in this culture where it’s a blessing to have a little palm tree,” Kari Mendoza said, nodding to her mother.
Victor Ramirez came with his wife and 16-year-old son to learn how to weave palm trees, which his grandparents kept in their home in the Mexican state of Morelos as protection against hurricanes and other evils.
With his finger also in the fescue, he quickly brought the settings of the palm firmly and quickly, to much more elaborate creations.
“We keep all the palm trees as a symbol of happiness,” Ramirez said.
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