You may know it as the Day of the Dead in Mexico. In Guatemala, November 1st is called All Saints Day. Families flock to cemeteries to decorate graves and visit their ancestors, but the wonderful surprise about this special day is the kites. Guatemaltecas create colorful kites, tiny and gigantic, artistic or whimsical or with sociallyContinue reading “Kites (reprise)”
Category Archives: festivals
Denver Pride 2024
Denver celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of Denver Pride this June with a weekend of activities, culminating in the parade last Sunday. I had to go! An estimated 100,000 people had the same idea. Ten years ago, I took part in a Pride parade in Toronto. In 2014, Canada hosted the International World Pride festival. IContinue reading “Denver Pride 2024”
Georgetown Christmas Market
My small historic mountain town in the Rockies knows how to celebrate holidays. Georgetown, Colorado’s Christmas Market, held the first two weekends of December each year, often places in the top ten as best holiday market in the country, despite competing with large cities around the United States. There are lots of visiting vendors andContinue reading “Georgetown Christmas Market”
Festivals of Scotland (reprise)
Who knew there were so many festivals in Scotland? A few years ago, my brother, son, and I took part in unique, fascinating celebrations all over that northern stretch of Great Britain in just two weeks. This is a reprise of one of my first blog posts—it was number seven (I’m now at 137). IContinue reading “Festivals of Scotland (reprise)”
Medieval Ávila
On the way back from a week-long English language immersion retreat in rural Spain in 2014, I asked the bus driver to drop me off at the Ávila mirador, or lookout. As I stepped down the stairs to collect my suitcase, I could hear others on the bus—students and tutors I had just spent a weekContinue reading “Medieval Ávila “
Mardi Gras! (reprise)
My first post on this blog, in March of 2020, told about the last trip I took before the COVID pandemic closed things down. It’s worth another share, now that I have many more viewers and followers. I’ve included more photos this time. My son, Adam, does ocean research and has been stationed for twoContinue reading “Mardi Gras! (reprise)”
Kites
You may know it as the Day of the Dead in Mexico. In Guatemala November 1st is called All Saints Day. Families flock to cemeteries to decorate graves and visit their ancestors, but the wonderful surprise about this special day is the kites. Guatemaltecas create colorful kites, tiny and gigantic, artistic or whimsical or with sociallyContinue reading “Kites”
Antigua saints and ruins
Christianity came to Latin America with the Spaniards, with missionaries following conquerors and colonizers. In Guatemala, there is an interesting mix between traditional Catholicism and Mayan religions. The stories and beliefs of the indigenous peoples have somehow infused even today’s culture. Every town and village in Guatemala has a Catholic church, and it also hasContinue reading “Antigua saints and ruins”
A labor of love (reprise)
It’s time for my favorite local event, Georgetown Plein Air, a couple of days of outdoor painting and a resulting art exhibit. I can’t resist sharing again my post from last year, when I had fewer readers, with some timely updates. The mountain town I live in—Georgetown, Colorado—is part of the Georgetown-Silver Plume National HistoricContinue reading “A labor of love (reprise)”
Fuchū, Japan
My teaching assignment in Japan, in fall of 2008, with a recruiting company that hired and placed foreign English teachers in Japanese universities, came with housing in Fuchū, about a half hour by train from Shinjuku, a major Tokyo hub. It’s a small city in Tokyo prefecture with an urban neighborhood feel, west of TokyoContinue reading “Fuchū, Japan”
Ruth Rosenfeld 