St. Anthony

There is a really crazy cool tradition in my site that happens every so often, sporadically. It is actually a tradition in all of Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

St. Anthony, apparently an adored saint in Central America, is one of the saints most often prayed to. It is tradition, that when someone prays to St. Anthony, they will promise him an entire day devoted to prayer, where they have a celebration, and pray the rosary from dawn till dusk, and people from all over the area come to pray and to give offerings to St. Anthony. The coolest part of the tradition is that they first have to go to a ¨nearby¨ town whose patron saint (yes, all the towns have patron saints) is St. Anthony. This town is about a 4 hour walk away from my town, and a few men usually go on horseback to the town to take the statue of St. Anthony back to the house where the prayer service is going to be.

When they are about to reach the town, they set off a firecracker (which basically sounds like a gunshot) in order to let the women in the house know they are coming. Then, the women go out to meet the men in the street, and they have a little fiesta in the middle of the street with singing, guitars playing, and dancing. Then, they all go into the house and begin the first rosary. They pray the rosary at least 10 times a day, with a break in between each time they pray, and different people coming in and out all day to pray or bring offerings to the saint.

The last time they had this event, I didn´t hear about it until after they had met in the street, unfortunately. But I did go later in the day to pray the rosary. When I arrived, there were three men in the corner of the room playing their guitars and singing ranchero songs about girls and being drunk. They also looked a little intoxicated themselves. Apparently, by the end of the day, many of the men get a little too happy from the beers they have been drinking all day! In there, were also a couple of women waiting patiently for the next rosary to start. I was excited to see this statue that I had been told about, and that they had gone through so much to get. I began looking around, but all I saw was a tiny little figurine sitting on a table at the front of the room. I asked one of the ladies ¨where is St. Anthony?¨ She pointed to the front of the room at the little figurine ¨there it is.¨ She exclaimed. I was shocked to see that the statue that they had gone through so much to get, and had revered so much was nothing more than a tiny little figurine no bigger than my hand. It was just another little reminder of the humble, steadfast faith that the people have in my town.