Resumo de Book Of Facts - Reader's Digest

CUSTOMS AND FESTIVALS III

TRAMPLED?.. A FEAT OF FLOWERS

Every Easter, Andean farmers and villagers transform the small market town of Tarma, northeast of the Peruvian capital, Lima. In a double ceremony- first on Good Friday and again on Easter Sunday- every square millimeter of the town centre streets is covered with thousands upon thousands of glowing flower petals painstakingly arranged in exquisite designs.
Preparations start the day before Good Friday when village womenfolk pluck the petals from flowers harvested locally and separate them by colour into sacks. As dusk fall, designers from each village crouch in the street, coping on to the dusty tarmac with chalk the outlines, bulls. Andean pipers, geometrical patterns reminiscent of Persian carpets, or even whimsical cartoons of familiar Western characters such as Donald Duck.
The villagers then spend all night filling in the designs with petals, so that by dawn the streets are a continuous series of flower carpets, each about 10m (3.3ft) long and each containing- in petals- the name of the group of village that created it.
Soon after dawn on Good Friday, the doors of the Catholic Church swing open and a statue of the Virgin Mary is carried out on a litter twice as high as a man. The priest walks in front, blessing each village as he reaches- and ?crosses- its carpet, and behind him the statue sways upon the shoulders of some 30 shuffling men. And as the procession passes, the designs, many of which were still being frantically completed only minutes before, are tramped into a liter of scuffed confetti-except that on the following day, Easter Saturday, the villagers begin the whole procedure again, often with wholly new designs.

THE RACE THAT IS FIXED

Since the 12th century the people of Gubbio in northern Italy have staged a ?rigged? to commemorate St. Ubaldo, ho is believed to have saved the town from invasion then. Every May statues of St. Ubaldo, St George and St. Anthony are paraded through the town atop 9m (30ft) poles during the Festival of Candles. Afterwards the statues are raced up the nearby 820m (2690ft). Monte Ingino to the Church of St Ubaldo. However, because the track is too narrow to allow overtaking, the result of race has not varied since its origin. The statues always reach the church in the same order- St. Ubaldo, St George, and then St. Anthony.

BLESSING THE ANIMALS

Animals attend church services on St Anthony?s Day in Mexico. This popular saint, who is regarded as a healer of men and animals, is asked to protect pets, which are decorated with flowers and ribbons for the occasion. In rural areas, peasants also bring bags of insects and worms to be blessed in church, in the hope that this will prevent these creatures from damaging crops. The saint whose feast day is on January 17 lived in Egypt between AD 251 and 356 and founded the first Christian monastery there.

GREEN POWER

Christians in parts of central Europe believe that green plants and green food acquire special healing powers on Green Thursday, the name given locally to Monday, Thursday, and the Thursday before Easter. The origins of the belief are obscures. It may have developed because excommunicate sinners, wearing springs of green as a sign of joy, were readmitted to the early Christian Church on this day.

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