Good Friday/Viernes Santo

Today is just about the only day in the year that I follow Catholic rules, well sort of. It's the only day I don't eat meat, and also  at 3:00PM (the time that Jesus was nailed to the Cross, supposedly) I hagve a prayer that I have done for many many years, just by myself, on my knees. It's sort of a tradition I made for myself.

When I was growing up , under Franco, they had big processions on Good Friday all over Spain. Nowadays only some cities and towns in the south primarily still have them. It scared me to see the Penitentes, with chains tied to their feet, walking all the way, bleeding, sometimes carrying heavy crosses, and the scarier, the "cofradias" or church members wearing their big cones on their head, different colors according to their church, and once in a while, usually a woman on a balcony start singing a "saeta" which is a very mournful song.

Last night in Sevilla they were having an big procession with hundreds of people participating and watching, when some men yelled "Allah is great" and they were brandishing metal bars and hitting things, and there was an stampede with people running in panic. and of course it halted the procession. There's different versions of the events depending what news you read. Is just too bad things like this happen. Most agree it was not an act of terrorism, but of vandalism.

In other happenings this morning I had a dermatology appointment in Garden Grove, I had my leg checked, and also I had about 2 small spots frozen in my arm and 2 in my face (too much sun and beach time in my teens)

So that was my Good Friday 2017.