In contrast to my parents, I am a nostalgic type of person who likes customs. Not having customary parents (some of you are going to look that word up, I know), my brother and I don’t have that many customs or traditions to observe. And so, we don’t. We don’t have a place to return to where we always vacationed. We don’t have any real Christmas customs, except going to church. We have no Thanksgiving traditions since we didn’t have that holiday in Costa Rica.

As a result, our boys don’t have a lot of traditions.  But we do have places and events that we remember nostalgically–like riding the Metrorail in Miami or going on “Dadventures.”  But we don’t nurture the traditions like other families, particularly like people from other countries.

Spain, for example, has traditions that carry a thousand years of tradition. You might question the reasonableness of these traditions, but as customs go, they are all the same. For instance, people have hiked the Camino de Santiago for about a millennium. This is a pilgrimage traditionally from France to a town called Santiago de Compostela. Why do people do this? Because 1000 years ago, some enterprising guy announced that he had the remains of St. James there. And people have flocked there ever since. I may become one of them later this year.

Is that crazy? Maybe. The bones of St. James have to be somewhere, right? I read about a crazier one recently. Tucked up in a beautiful mountain range between Madrid and Avila (Janice and I found out just how beautiful it was up there as we got lost in them parts last year) is a little town called San Bartolomé de Pinares. There, every January, they have a custom, a tradition, which draws people from all over. The local priest has a “blessing of the pets” so to speak, that’s called Las Luminarias. Luminaries for us here are candles, put in a bag or something, that decorate a yard or a walkway at Christmastime. But for them, in January, it’s a big bonfire over which people jump their horses and donkeys. (Bet you weren’t expecting that!)  For hundreds of years, people have believed that the smoke from the fire, not unlike incense in the church, purifies the animals. Most priests in Spain have decided a little holy water suffices. But not in San Bartolomé de Pinares. They have different traditions.

Around the church office, we’ve started talking about our Holy Week traditions. Seems early. But Ash Wednesday is only 10 days away. Traditions can bring people together. They do in San Bartolomé – a town of 500 grows exponentially that day. I hope that happens here at First Boca. Traditions can bring us closer to the Lord as well–that’s the purpose of what we do around Lent. The preparations in our church are starting. I hope you are readying your heart.

Easter is going to be great!

Waxing nostalgic,

Craig

“You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. Deuteronomy 16:9,10