Flores de Mayo

When I was young we used to attend a catechism class every afternoon starting on May 1st until the end of May. We call this activity Flores de Mayo, a spanish phrase which mean "Flowers of May". Actually, Flores de Mayo is a festival celebrated in the whole month of May in honor of Mother Mary. Our teacher, an old woman, which was an active church goer would teach us some Sunday songs and recite some rosaries for Mother Mary. The fun thing about those days was when we were asked to bring any kind of flowers we have at home or to pick some flowers along the road as an offering to the blessed Mother. My friends and I would usually frolic along the road where we could see many butterflies and beautiful flowers. Even though I was just 7 years old at that time I could still remember how much I enjoyed the beauty around me. I could not think of a perfect word to describe it, but it was more than amazing. I was lucky since my parents, specially my father, love gardening and we have many varieties of ornamental plants at home. The most exciting part is the end of Flores de Mayo, we held a procession in the entire place and of course there would be beautiful girls dressed in lovely gowns with escort who would walked in front of the group. This event if called Santa Cruzan, a festival celebrated in honor of Reyna Helena the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. At last they found the Holy Cross and brought it back to Rome, the capital of their empire. This is one of my favorite festivals when I was young and when we lived in a place where the beach was just next to our front yard. This is part of my colorful childhood days.