Mba´epa Jajapo Pascuara

Today´s Post in English: What will we do for Easter?

I´m writing today at the culmination of what was, for me at least, a week of religious festivities. It all started with my semi-secret observance of Passover (also known as ´´Pascua de los Judíos´´ or ´´Easter of the Jews´´) followed by some very public observance of Semana Santa (´´Holy Week´´ in English).

Last Monday, I took off at dawn to visit another volunteer, Nati, to observe Pesach. Having told a few of my closer acquaintances that I was going to share my own religious observance with friends and others that I was helping another volunteer with a special project, I caught a series of buses heading toward Ciudad del Este. About an hour away on the major East-West ruta, I disembarked and headed 8 km in to Nati´s site. Nati is a health volunteer finishing her time in PY this month.

We celebrated the first night of Passover alone and were joined by two other volunteers, Dan and Jen, on the second night. Nati cooked some amazing comfort foods: roasted chicken with root vegetables, matzo ball soup, charoset, eggplant parmesean, matzo brie, chocolate mousse, and crustless pumpkin pie. She also had...lo and behold...several boxes of matzo sent from home and sequestered since last Passover. So our seder was complete. My favorite aspect of the seder plate was Nati´s sculpture of the Pesach offering: a beet carved into a lamb. It´s a very postmodern idea, if you think about it: mixing form and representation with the vegetarian revision of the classical offering.

My favorite part of the seder was retelling the story of the exodus from Egypt in the first person. Nati and I recounted it in Spanish and Guaraní the first night and we all used English the second night. What a wonderful addition to the seder. After all, we are commanded to act as though we personally have been led out of Egypt.

After a fairly smooth trip home, I was immediately immersed in Semana Santa. Because there is no priest in Prettyview, the community is not terribly religious. Thus, this major holiday was marked mostly by eating and partying. The custom in Paraguay in Prettyview seemed to be shaped around what one eats on each day of the week. On Wednesday, everyone makes chipa (bread with mandioca flour) and on Thursday, the tatakua (wood-fired oven) gets fired up again for sopa Paraguaya (like rich cornbread). Plenty of asado and other tasty foods are eaten on these two days as well, as relatives working in Asunción, Ciudad del Este, or other parts abroad swell the campaña population. On Friday, most people stay at home, eat only chipa and sopa (no meat, of course), and act relatively seriously. At the very least, no music was blasting! Saturday and Sunday were taken up with more parties and a service on Sunday morning at the church. Most of the visitors left on Sunday and now Prettyview is more or less back to normal.

I enjoyed visiting with many of my favorite families over Semana Santa. I made chocolate cake (8 pans!) with one family on Thursday and biscuits with another on Sunday (clearly I am not keeping kosher for Pesach). A note to traveling bakers: biscuits might take thirty minutes to reach a light golden color in a gas oven, but they become brown and crispy after seven or eight minutes in a Paraguayan tatakua! They still tasted great, though.

It has been interesting to celebrate these holidays in the Fall instead of the Spring, especially given the northern hemisphere bias in Judaism and Christianity. I explained what I knew about Easter Eggs and Ash Wednesday (the ash custom takes place at the beginning of Lent here, too) and even a little about Passover to those who seemed open.

So that is the dispatch from Pesach and Semana Santa in Paraguay! For your enjoyment, I include photos of our seder plate and the Passover table.