People are so amusing:Nicaraguans celebrate mass for dogs
MASAYA, Nicaragua (Reuters) - Hundreds of dogs, many dressed as babies or clowns, were taken to celebrate mass in this Nicaraguan town on Sunday, an annual ritual where the owners pray for their pets to be cured or avoid falling ill.
Well, doggies have short lives and are bound to get diseases and no amount of voodoo will prevent that. Taking care of their diets, getting regular check-ups at the vet along with regular vaccinations will help them stay as healthy as they can, but magic chants will not prevent the inevitable for dogs or people.
A long queue of Catholics, carrying their pets or leading them on leashes, waited their turn to pass by an image of a saint in a tiny church in this town 30 kilometres to the south of the Nicaragua capital, Managua.
The faithful thank the saint for curing their pets or ask for the dogs to be protected from illness. The town's priest always conducts a special canine mass.
We lived next to a parking lot of a Catholic church back in the late 70s and one morning in early spring I was awakened by the noise of a bunch of people talking and dogs barking. I looked outside and saw a bunch of people lined up with their dogs and other pets waiting to be sprinkled with holy water by a priest. It was quite a bizarre scene. Some animals were clearly anxious, some dogs were sniffing other dogs, cats were going beserk in their cat carriers, birds fluttered like "wtf?" The whole scene was quite surreal. Like a scene from a movie."We brought him so he does not get sick," said local resident Nora Espinosa, talking about her six-month-old Basset Hound, dressed in a soccer outfit.
Like I said before, that isn't going to help your doggie. Feeding it a proper diet, making sure it gets regular exercise, and regular medical check-ups will keep Rover healthy as possible. No need for oogie boogie rituals. And it would also help the dog's mental health if you stop dressing your pooch like a human child! It's a DOG for crying out loud!
2 comments:
And I thought Filipinos were crazy with their house blessing ceremonies.
A few months ago we went to one of my wife's cousins house in Staten Island. They were having a birthday party for their 3 year old. We get there about an hour late and when I walked up the stairs to their floor, everybody was standing or sitting deathly quiet. I thought to myself, "Is this a kid's birthday party or a funeral." It turned out they decided that with all the guests there, they would have their house blessing ceremony too.
If I had known they were doing that, I would have gotten there even later! What a bunch of nonsense!
Oh man, Tommy, Don't you hate getting trapped into stuff like that? It's bad enough getting caught up into the magical dinnertime incantations before eating, but that would be quite bizarre. Look at all those people who have house-blessing ceremonies one day and blow away in a tornado or gas explosion the next. Geesh.
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