We want to wish you a very happy Easter with family and friends where ever you may be!
Here’s how we celebrate Easter on the beach:
Again, enjoy your Easter holidays!
Tag Archives: Holidays
In Mexico, Easter is an Entire Week
The week leading up to Easter is important in many countries and cultures. However, Easter up in the U.S. is usually just a nice family dinner on Sunday, and an Easter egg hunt – lots of fun, but still only one day.
Of course, many people will go to church on Good Friday, and in Canada they add a day on Monday, but otherwise these days carry on, business like usual.
As is often the case, the Mexican Easter holidays are more “substantial.”
In Mexico, Easter is an entire week of holidays (Holy Week). Many people have the entire week off work. Of course, some people – especially those who work in tourism or restaurants – have to work not only regular hours, but overtime to accommodate everyone else’s holiday cheer!
What people do during these days varies greatly depending on their personal values, beliefs and finances. There are enough Mexicans who enjoy the time for travel and simple pleasures, or just to relax.
However, with Mexico’s strong Catholic roots, most people will include some religious activity, and many will dedicate the week to their faith. As happens in Canada and the U.S., at Easter (like at Christmas) many people who aren’t very dedicated to religion will go to church and participate in related activities – but probably in greater numbers and more passionately so (no pun intended!)
Holy Week includes the Palm Sunday processions, the Passion plays of Good Friday, in which people re-enact the story of Jesus’ death (which we’ll look at tomorrow), and going to mass really often. On Saturday, there’s a strange little tradition in Mexico City at least of throwing water on passers-by. I’m still not sure why they do this.
-by Thomas Lloyd
Expat Tip – Traveling Back Home in the Winter
by Thomas Lloyd
When traveling back to their home country, most expats will follow the “snow-bird” pattern, choosing the hotter summer months. Basically, this is the way the option that makes the most sense for the most reasons. You avoid the most extreme heat in Mexico, while enjoying at least part of the milder northern summers and avoiding the worst part of all of it altogether – freezing cold and snow.
Yet, I know a few people who will make their trips back home during the winter months. There are several possible motivations for this. One is that they can spend holidays with their family. For many expats this becomes less compelling because, as so many expats have pointed out, once you live on a beach in Mexico, you will suddenly find that many family members and friends will actually start visiting you more often – especially for holidays; you may even find that you have friends that you never knew about before!
Another reason is that some people miss the Christmas spirit as they know it from back home. This may be true especially early on after moving. Yet, after getting to know Mexico’s rich Christmas traditions, most Americans and Canadians prefer it to the overly commercialized hustle and bustle that has come to define the holidays seasons north of the Rio Grande.
It’s worth noting that most people don’t miss the snow. It looks beautiful, but most of us remember how cold it is and are quite content to see pictures!
Despite the fact that most reasons to travel north in the winter disappear with time, there are nevertheless some expats who do it. Most will quite happily follow the snow-bird pattern, or increasingly as time goes on and, many are simply happy to choose Mexico as their full-time home!
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