Nossa Senhora de Aparecida

This weekend the population in Jeri grew about two times larger than usual because on October 12th there are two holidays: Nossa Senhora de Aparecida (Our Lady of the Appeared Conception) and Dia das Crianças (Childrens Day!)

The story behind the Apparation and creation of Nossa Senhora de Aparecida:

In October 1717, Dom Pedro do Almeida (Count of Assumar and Governor of São Paulo and Minas Gerais) was on his way to an important gold mining site when he passed through the city of Guaratinguetá. The people of this city wanted to hold a feast in his honour but it was not fishing season. Regardless, three fishermen: Domingos Garcia, João Alves, and Filipe Pedroso prayed to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, asked God's help and went out fishinhg. They werent successful and after a few hours they were ready to give up when João tried his luck one more time. They were near the Port of Itaguaçu when their net brought up the body of a statue missing its head. When the net was cast again, this time statue's head was caught. The fishermen found that it was a black version of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. As Legend follows when both the figure and head were recovered the Aparecida Virgin became so heavy that they couldn't budge it.

The fishermen named their find Nossa Senhora da Aparecida Conceição (English: Our Lady of the Appeared Conception), wrapped it in cloth and continued to fish. Now their catch was so great, their boat threatened to sink with the weight of the fish. This miracle was attributed to Our Lady of Aparecida.

Children´s day is basically self explanatory.

Happy Thanksgiving! Jen and I will have to hunt down a turkey tonight. Some how I think we´ll have to settle for eating chicken instead of turkey, rice in place of mashed potatoes, and beans for the usual delicious candied yams, curried cauliflower and sesame broccoli. Nothing can replace stuffing though. Jen is feeling kind of bummed because she´s got an eye infection so no swimming for her for a bit. Maybe I´ll try to make a pumpkin pie to make her feel better, although the stove needs some tampering with to get it working.

PS This post is being written on our Pousada´s computer. The spell check is in Portuguese so it thinks I´m spelling everything wrong and neglects to inform me when I really do have a spelling error. I´ve had to look up the spelling for a surprising number of words. Oh technology, how much I depend on you!