The Night of the Radishes
I'll bet you're just dying to know what The Night of the Radishes is all about. Before I get there, though, I'd like to say I'm a Senior and proud of it. I don't even have to ask for a Senior discount anywhere--the sweet clerks just automatically give it to me.
As I gradually turned into a Senior, I learned to play golf, and while I'd love to tell you all about that adventure, many have already heard my story. Our traveling became the most exciting event we did about twice a year. We traveled back and forth over the ocean on several tours, took a few nice long, cruises, toured Canada a couple of times, and finally began to see the good ol' USA.
Then we became intrigued with Mexico and made four trips on a tour bus down into the interior of Mexico, where the area and the people are more like a foreign country than they are on the Texas-Mexico border. It was quiet down there, historic, quaint, beautiful, and charming. The people were always polite, and for the most part the villages and cities were quite clean.
Our last trip down there was three years ago at Christmas. Our anniversary is near Christmas, and so to celebrate our 50th we traveled by tour bus to Oaxaca, Mexico, a city of half a million set in the beautiful Sierra Madre Mountains.
On Christmas Eve, our tour guide took us to the center of Oaxaca to view the spectacular Night of the Radishes. She warned us, "Senoras and Senors, Oaxaca has one half a million residents, and tonight you will see all of them!" She laughed. Well, let me tell it, it was a crowd of epic proportions at the huge double squares, located corner to corner.
A contest was held to display creations carved completely from giant radishes. We crept along in the line to study each display. I was truly amazed. The winners would receive a cash award, and so there were many entries, all vying for that special prize. Oaxaca is a poor state for the most part.
In this photo, Mexican Policia were loading this gorgeous, specially made motorcycle someone had parked on the square. It broke no laws, but the police loaded it anyway. I asked Sophia, our guide what they were taking it. She said, they will present it to someone higher up as a gift. Aha.
As a Spunky Senior, I climbed a pyramid. I do admit it was not a tall pyramid, but at least I did it. The hard part was that the steps were very narrow, so that I had to turn my foot sideways, or just stand on my tip-toes. Also each step was about two feet tall. I really sort of crawled up, but at least I did it.
Thank you for joining me here today, and thank you, Morgan.
Celia Yeary-Romance...and a little bit 'o Texas
http://www.celiayeary.blogspot.com http://www.celiayeary.com
Please welcome Celia Yeary to Spunky Senior Authors & Talents. Thanks for sharing with us today, Celia.
http://www.celiayeary.blogspot.com http://www.celiayeary.com
Love that radishes display, Celia! Welcome to Spunky Senior Authors and Talents!
ReplyDeleteMorgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
Good morning, Morgan--this is great! Thank you so much for letting me tell my tale. I'll be around to visit, if there are some who wants to know about the radishes.
ReplyDeleteI love sculpture, but never thought I would see a sculpture from a radish. That must have been an amazing sight. How big did some of those radishes get? Obviously much bigger than what we find in the grocery store. LOL
ReplyDeleteHow clever to create little people out of radishes! I was entranced by your post, Celia! You have had such interesting experiences. You are the queen of spunk!
ReplyDeleteWhooOOT! Well done, Celia. You don't even look out of breath! I studied Art & Design (sculpture), but not sure I could carve a radish so beautifully. Interesting post!
ReplyDeleteAnother spunky senior. Well done, Cecila. Love your post and your interesting experiences. I traveled to nine cities in Mexico several years ago...in nine days, so it was a trip I'll always remember. I was working as a recruiter for the University of California at the time.
ReplyDeleteYou are a spunky senior, and probably were a spunky junior. Your trip sounds nice, so maybe that's a tour my husband and I would enjoy. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMaryann--the radishes were about the size of small cantalope around, and at least a foot long...some much longer. The sculptures--every bit of anything in the display--had to come from the radish. Anything green in the display were the leaves fromthe radish. I'd estimate about 60 or so diplays, and thousand of people were in a single line to move around the middle of the square to view each display. It went on and on...
ReplyDeleteMAGGIE--the queen of spunk? Uh, probably not, but I love the title! Thanks...
ReplyDeleteSHERYL! I bet you could sculpt a figure out of anything you wanted. Some of these displays were created and made by teenage boys and girls. Thanks so much to visiting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun fiesta, Celia. Beautiful pictures.
ReplyDeleteAmazing sculpturing of the radishes. Your photos are beautiful. I've never been to Mexico as my genes take me to Denmark and Scotland. Our children-of-our-heart draw us to Sweden and Holland. Hmmmm maybe the cool weather is the second reason. I don't like the heat and I've heard it can get darn hot in Mexico. It does look like a gorgeous place to have an adventure in though. Thanks for sharing your photos and memories, Celia.
ReplyDeleteThe sculpture is amazing - was that one the winner? And thanks for your other photos of Mexico, somewhere I doubt I'll ever get the opportunity to visit.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sandy--I see you found me!
ReplyDeletePaisley--oh, it does get very hot in Mexico. I wouldn't go down there in the summer--we always went in the early Spring or late fall.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in the interior in the mountainous region, it's nice and pleasant all the time. You see in the photo of me at the pyramid, I have on pants, long-sleeved shirt, but I tied my windbreak around my waist. I started out chilly, but worked up a little sweat with that climbing. Thanks for reading...
PAULA--I don't know which won. The night we were there was the judging night, and we were gone from Oacaxa the next day. No, I don't expect you'd ever get to Mexico...but you'd like this region.
ReplyDeleteVery exciting adventures to share here! And I will chime in and say that that is the best use of radishes ever! Happy to meet you here, Celia!
ReplyDeleteHi, Terry...it's the best use of radishes, as far as I'm concerned, too. I hate radishes. Mother always had a garden, and of course she included radishes. None of us liked them...but there they were on the table until they were gone. They burned my tongue.
ReplyDeleteOh, it was exciting. I probably think just about anything is exciting. I'm easily intertained! Thanks for the comment.
Celia, what an adventure! I love your pictures. Those radishes were cool - and I'm with you - I hate them. I'm chuckling because my grandmother had a garden, too and she grew them. None us of liked them either.
ReplyDeleteI think you need to get out of Texas more often. hehe
Smiles
Steph
Hi Celia-- I missed your post, and found it from Steph's tweet. I saw water melon, and fruit, maybe radish too, sculptures, on cruises. Some fantastic displays. I love eating radishes and always use them in salad.
ReplyDelete