It also means I am often reminded of my Catholic roots, and yesterday was a Holy Day of Obligation. It was December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, to be precise. This is the day Catholics honor Mary's conception of baby Jesus without the fun of having had sex first. (Because sex is not fun! Remember?)
When I was in Catholic school, this date troubled me. I took it literally (things in the Bible should not really be taken literally... but still, we are surrounded by a variety of religious wars). I thought, "If Mary got pregnant on December 8th, and had Jesus on December 25th, then she was only pregnant for 17 days? Or if she got pregnant on the 8th, and had Jesus on December 25th the following year, then she was pregnant for over a year? Does God require a longer gestation period? That would suck!" But Catholicism is all about suffering, after all.
So why would I be reminded of this because of my neighborhood? Well, our Lady of Guadalupe, of course! In 1531, the Virgin Mary herself came down from Heaven to tell a Mexican peasant (just outside of Mexico City) to build a temple on the hill. Then she imprinted an image of herself on a his battered old tilma - a cloth made of cactus - which still exists today. I guess the image is so good that you can see images reflected in her eyes! (Take that, Shroud of Turin.)
When there is a Mary-centric event, my hood takes notice. On the way home from work, I saw that a vacant lot had been lit up with holiday lights and there were tables and tarps set up to keep the rain off everyone. People were dishing up home cooked food and hanging out, chatting and playing music. And displayed in the bed of a truck was a large painting of the Lady of Guadalupe.
This reminded me that a couple years before while working in a record store in Hollywood, I had noticed a crowd of people with flowers gathering across the street in front of the Jack in the Box. We were trying to figure out what was up, when a flatbed truck drove up with the same giant painting in the back. Everyone got up and followed it away. I guess it was part of the "parade" route, leading everyone back to what is now my neighborhood, Silverlake. A small pilgrimage to honor the Lady.
Another reason why I love this town.
