¡Feliz Día de Santo Domingo!

Sunday 8/1/10

During my conversation class on Friday morning, before the learners began creating imaginary creatures like Pepe the Worm and ElephantCat and playing Apples to Apples, we had a discussion about plans for the weekend to incorporate the future tense into our learning. This was the first time I really heard information about Día de Santo Domingo (I had previously heard there was a holiday today, but I had not known what it was or the significance to Catholics in Managua.) The story behind the holiday, according to my fellow conversationalists and Catholics Marcos and Gladys as well as vianica.com, goes as follows: Sometime a little over 100 years ago in a rural part of Managua called Las Sierritas a farmer by the name of Vincente Aburto was cutting down trees when he found a small statuette of an unknown saint inside of a tree trunk. In an effort to identify the saint, Vincente (and his curious neighbors) brought the statuette to a local church where the priest told them that it was the image of Saint Dominic de Guzmán. The men decided it had to be some sort of sign, and left the statuette inside the church for the night. However, upon returning to Las Sierritas the group found the statuette in the exact same location it was in the first place! Astounded, they returned to the priest to tell him what they had seen, and the priest said it was impossible that the statue had returned because he had locked it away. The men ran to the church to find that the statuette really was no longer there! The mysterious movement of the statuette of Saint Dominic made the priest believe that the image wanted to remain in Las Sierritas. He told Vincente and his neighbors to build a home for the image at the site it was discovered, and have Saint Dominic visit Managua every year accompanied by dances and happiness. Since the fourth of August is the day of Saint Dominic according to the Catholic calendar the period from the first until the tenth of August was chosen as a time of celebration. Over the years, the tradition of having a procession to move Saint Dominic from Las Sierritas into the center of Managua grew in popularity and “Minguito” began to be interpreted as a bringer of miracles and the new patron saint of the city.

Each July 31st, the same statuette is taken off its altar and placed on a pedestal where it is protected by a glass capsule and surrounded with colorful artificial flowers and feathers. At 6 AM the next morning there is a mass followed by the start of the procession and special events for Saint Dominic. Thousands of people participate in these events, and either accompany “Minguito” on the walk to the Santo Domingo church in the center of the City or simply watch from the side of the road. The most notable and important participants in the events are called “promisers”. The “promisers” are individuals who made promises to Saint Dominic to take part in the procession after prayers to the saint were answered and miracles occurred. The promisers wear colorful traditional attire and perform a special dance of Saint Dominic. In addition, the pedestal is carried on the shoulders of many of the promisers, who do not carry the pedastal in a straight line because they move and sway with the music.

Watching all of these events unfold on the Canal 10 Noticias- the odd costumes and dancing, the drinking, the excess, the bullfighting, and the injuries- I’m not quite sure how to feel about this holiday dedicated to Saint Dominic who I consider to be very important as the founder of the Order of the Preachers and whose teaching is the basis for my educational experience at Providence College. My host family is Evangelical, and therefore like many Nicaraguans Día de Santo Domingo is simply a day off where Catholics (many of whom are intoxicated) perform odd rituals. Maria Eugenia told me last week “Oh yeah, Sunday is a holiday but we try to stay in the house because the streets will get too crazy and dangerous.” I was not told that the streets would be filled with “crazy” Catholics. I’m wondering if there is a fine line between religious fervor and all out tomfoolery. I think Día de Santo Domingo is a fascinating mix of culture and a desire to dance and worship. However, I don’t know if it is borderline idol-worship because I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. Old men, women, teenagers, young children all swaying back and forth, singing, and following this giant bright orange arc of the covenant looking vessel with a tiny statue under glass.

My concerns were slightly appeased by the homily at mass tonight. The Friar used the Second Reading from Colossians 3:1-5 to explain the way a Catholic should act during Día de Santo Domingo and every day. The reading states:

“Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry. 
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator. 
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.”


He asked us to reflect on our actions during the day. Were they Christ-like in the way that we showed our devotion to “Minguito”? Did we give in to some of our passions and desires? He advised us to avoid the temptation to take part in the excesses and focus on the devotional part of the holiday. The gist of the homily was WWJD because we are all reflections of Him. My major fault of the day was that Jesus most likely would not have scheduled His third session with the scholarship students on a Sunday and one of the most important religious holidays of the year. More on this later…