Tag Archives: traditions

A Culture of Kindness in Japan

Some of you may know that I have a creative writing site on Substack called Digging Deep, Then Deeper: Something to Say. Today, I published an essay about my take on Japanese culture based on my observations of acts of kindness, cleanliness, and respect. Rather than repost it in its entirety, you can read it at this link: A Culture of Kindness.

And, if you haven’t already subscribed to read my essays past and future, you can do this at the end of the essay with the buttons.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting. All my best, Norma

And, we are taking a list of people interested in going with us to Japan for a culture and textile tour in October 2025. If you would like to add your name to be notified when we have more information, please send me an email. Thank you very much.

Mother’s Day in Mexico is Always on May 10

Feliz Dia de las Madres! Happy Mother’s Day

The sentiment is the same around the world wherever Mother’s Day is celebrated: love, gratitude, and appreciation. It is a day to honor and celebrate mothers and those who have stepped into this role as surrogates. We show appreciation for their care and contributions to us as individuals and to families in general. Many use the day to express affection, give gifts, or spend quality time with the important women in their lives. It is one particular time to show respect and acknowledge the essential role that mothers play. From my point of view, it does not need to be soppy or dramatic, or over-the-top. It is an opportunity for each of us to communicate genuine caring, whatever that looks like.

In the USA, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day to be official in 1914. The Mexican government officially recognized Mother’s Day in 1922. In the USA, the date floats and is always observed on the second Sunday in May. In Mexico, this is a fixed date and is observed on whichever day May 10 falls.

Why May 10? Because back in the day, the 10th of the month was pay day in Mexico, meaning that everyone could afford a little extra to buy mom a gift or take her out for a nice meal. The month of May in Mexico is also important because it is consecrated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Patron Saint of Mexico, and the incarnation of the Virgin Mary.

In Mexico, children of all ages make a fuss about their mothers in various ways. Moms are called las reinas de la casa, or the queens of the house, and treated accordingly. Flowers are particularly popular – the more colorful, the better! But for many Mexican moms, the most valuable gift is a little less tangible. Often, children gather outside the house on the morning of Mother’s Day to serenade mom with a song. Las Mañanitas is a favorite tune, with appropriate lyrics that translate to Because today is your day, we’ve come to sing for you. To awaken to the sound of your children singing to you (sometimes accompanied by a full mariachi band) is considered to be the ultimate Mother’s Day experience.

You will often hear this in Mexico:

  • Mamá, eres la mejor (Mom, you’re the best). 
  • Te quiero con todo mi corazón (I love you with all my heart). 

Also, Mother’s Day in Mexico all about food. Families will often gather around a feast featuring such signature Mexican dishes as mole, pozole verde with pork, enchiladas, sopes, quesadillas, beef barbacoa and more. 

If we are so lucky that our mothers, grandmothers, or other mother figures are still with us, this is an opportunity to offer a special tribute. If our mothers have passed on, it is a time for us to reflect on how they influenced us, contributed to our well being, and helped shaped us to better navigate in the world.

Not every mother-child relationship is/was consistently rosy. Most of us have experienced the inconsistencies of mothering. If we are parents ourselves, we know how difficult it is to be even-handed, rational, loving, affirming, and offer unconditional love and support one-hundred percent of the time. As I have written in a recent essay, they did the best they could given the tools they were given, and so did we!

Las Mananitas Lyrics

Estas son las mañanitas
Que cantaba el rey David
Hoy, por ser día de tu santo
Te las cantamos aquí

Despierta, mi bien, despierta
Mira que ya amaneció
Ya los pajaritos cantan
La luna ya se metió

Qué linda está la mañana
En que vengo a saludarte
Venimos todos con gusto
Y placer a felicitarte

El día en que tú naciste
Nacieron todas las flores
En la pila del bautismo
Cantaron los ruiseñores

Ya viene amaneciendo
Ya la luz del día nos dio
Levántate de mañana
Mira que ya amaneció

Si yo pudiera bajarte
Las estrellas y un lucero
Para poder demostrarte
Lo mucho que yo te quiero

Con jazmines y flores
Este día quiero adornar
Hoy, por ser día de tu santo
Te venimos a cantar

Day of the Dead in San Pablo Villa de Mitla

Each Oaxaca village celebrates Day of the Dead a bit differently, according to their own customs. In Mitla, the spirits (difuntos) leave their tombs and follow the scents of copal and marigold back to the family homes on November 1. The transition from the underworld back to the world of the living happens in the morning and tradition has it that all have left their resting places by noon. This is when the firecrackers go off, the church bells ring, and all living relatives have left the cemetery in a procession, guiding the spirits with the intense aroma of incense and flowers.

Our group arrived at the cemetery at 11 a.m. in time to give prayers to Arturo’s mother Elena Quero Quero at her grave site. Arturo is a back strap and flying shuttle loom weaver who we have known for many years. We visit the Mitla cemetery with him for an explanation of the cultural history and traditions. Having a local friend to take us makes all the difference in how we are seen and accepted by locals, as well as enhances our learning experience.

We pay homage to two men from the USA who made Mitla their home in the mid-1900s, archeologist Ervin Frissell and artist Howard Leigh. They are both buried in a mausoleum at the cemetery and this is highly unusual. They are honored by the village and Oaxaca state because they were instrumental in collecting and documenting important artifacts that are part of the town’s cultural patrimony. In addition, Frissell introduced the fixed frame treadle loom here, bringing it from Saltillo, and taught women to weave shawls and make hand-knotted fringes. His hotel and restaurant attracted artists, writers, and archeologists from around the world. Frissell was the first outsider to come to help, according to Arturo, and the town reveres him.

We return to Arturo’s home studio for an explanation of his traditional altar and it’s significance for Day of the Dead. He uses only pre-Hispanic fruits and vegetables, uses a corn stalk instead of sugar cane (introduced by the Spanish) to create the portal to enter the living world from the underworld. He says there are more elaborate, luxurious altars, but this is how he personally wants to honor the ancestors. He tells us that the raised concrete altar was introduced by the Spanish. Before that, altars were on the ground.

Mitla is significant. It’s original name is Mictlan, place of the dead. It is believed that all Zapotec spirits eminate from here, a testimony that death is the most consequential event of life.

In the practice of blending Zapotec and Spanish tradition that we call syncretism, Arturo explains that the first arch of the concrete altar represents birth. The middle arch represents life and the one on the right represents death. The Catholics adapted the three portals to fit with their own spiritual beliefs and said the three portals represent the Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

He shows us a new basket on the floor next to the portal. The spirits use this to collect the food from the altar to take with them when they return to the underworld. The basket must be new because it cannot occupy the spirit of anyone else! Alongside the altar is a petate, where the spirits can rest. The petate is a key part of ancient Zapotec life. This is where you are born, sleep, and wrapped with for burial. A man’s petate is tied closed with his sash. A woman’s is tied with her rebozo. The textiles help people cross over into the underworld.

Arturo serves us pulque, a lightly fermented juice from the agave plant. Different from mezcal, which is distilled, pulque is a viscous slightly sweet liquid that is a digestive cleanser, much like kombucha, and very important to indigenous culture for ceremonies.

He describes the mural behind the altar that shows the Mitla archeological site, the Catholic church built atop of these ruins, Spanish conquerors on horseback, birds that symbolize peace, native hairless Mexican dog called Xoloitzcuintli, a pre-Hispanic pastoral scene. Arturo says that the indigenous worshipped nature, water, and mother earth. The Spanish needed to conquer them spiritually.

After lunch next door at La Choza del Chef, we return to Arturo’s studio for a backstrap loom weaving demonstration and to see the beautiful textiles he and his son Martin create.

Next, we made a stop to visit Epifanio, another long-time friend in Mitla, who has constructed a very traditional altar amidst his collections of antiques that he buys and sells.

It was a great day of learning and exploring!

Chiapas Textile Study Tour 2021: Deep Into the Maya World

The Maya World of Chiapas, Mexico, spans centuries and borders. Maya people weave their complex universe into beautiful cloth. Symbols are part of an ancient pre-Hispanic animist belief system. In the cloth we see frogs, the plumed serpent, woman and man, earth and sky, the four cardinal points, moon and sun, plus more, depending on each weaver.

Andrea with her award-winning huipil, San Andres Larrainzar
San Juan Chamula woman, Los Leñateros print + paper making studio

We go deep into the Mayan world of southern Mexico, from February 23 to March 3, 2021. While we focus on textiles, we also explore what it means to be indigenous, part of cooperative, live in a remote village, have agency and access to economic opportunity. We meet creative, innovative and talented people who open their doors and welcome us.

Church official, Zinacantan, Chiapas
Melanie brought 25 boxes of crayons to give to children along the way

Our dates of February 23 to March 3, 2021, are reserved in a fine historic hotel. 8 nights, 9 days in and around the San Cristobal de Las Casas highlands.

Cost • $2,695 double room with private bath (sleeps 2) • $3,195 single room with private bath (sleeps 1)

We are based in the historic Chiapas mountain town of San Cristobal de las Casas, the center of the Maya world in Mexico. Here we will explore the textile traditions of ancient people who weave on back strap looms.

Ancient Maya cemetery, San Juan Chamula
We distributed more than 50 pairs of glasses to help weavers see

Women made cloth on simple looms here long before the Spanish conquest in 1521 and their techniques translate into stunning garments admired and collected throughout the world today. Colorful. Vibrant. Warm. Exotic. Connecting. Words that hardly describe the experience that awaits you.

Home goods for export made on flying shuttle pedal loom
Extraordinary gauze woven huipil from Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas

We are committed to give you a rich cultural immersion experience that goes deep rather than broad. We cover a lot of territory. That is why we are spending eight nights in this amazing Pueblo Magico — Magic Town — to focus on Maya textiles, weaving and embroidery traditions.

Saints dress in traditional garments, Magdalena Aldama
Julia and friends in Tenejapa during Carnival

Our cultural journey takes us into villages, homes and workshops to meet the people who keep their traditions vibrant. We explore churches, museums and ancient cemeteries. This is an interpersonal experience to better know and appreciate Mexico’s amazing artisans.

Embroidered skirts and shawls, Zinacantan Sunday Market

There will be only ONE study tour to Chiapas in 2021.

Your Study Tour Leader is Norma Schafer, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC. Sheri Brautigam, author of Living Textiles of Mexico, will be your expert resource guide.

Lynn and Andrea — of course! She bought it.

Take this study tour to learn about:

  • culture, history and identity of cloth
  • cultural appropriation or cultural appreciation
  • wool spinning and weaving
  • clothing design and construction
  • embroidery and supplementary (pick-up) weft
  • Maya textile designs — iconography and significance
  • village and individual identity through clothing
  • social justice, opportunities and women’s issues
  • market days and mercantile economy
  • local cuisine, coffee, cacao and chocolate
  • quality and value
Men wear flowers, too, in Zinacantan

We work with one of San Cristobal’s best bilingual cultural guides who has worked with weavers and artisans in the region. Alejandro is a native Mexican who knows textiles and can explain the meaning of the woven symbols embedded in the cloth. You will enjoy learning from him.

Keeping the edges straight on a back-strap loom

We will travel in a comfortable van as we go deep into the Maya world.

  • We visit 6 Maya weaving villages
  • We enjoy home-cooked meals
  • We meet makers and directly support them
  • We go far and away, off-the-beaten path
  • We decode the weaving designs unique to each woman and village
  • We explore three towns on their market days
  • We understand the sacred, mysterious rituals of Maya beliefs
Innovative colors with traditional designs from Alberto Lopez Gomez

Who Should Attend  Anyone who loves cloth, culture, and collaboration • Textile and fashion designers • Weavers, embroiderers and collectors • Photographers and artists who want inspiration • Resellers

Winn finds a treasure at our Regrets Sale on the last day

Daily Itinerary

Tuesday, February 23: Travel day. Arrive and meet at our hotel in San Cristobal de las Casas. You will receive directions to get from the Tuxtla Gutierrez airport to our hotel. The airport is a clean and modern facility with straightforward signage. You will book your flight to Tuxtla from Mexico City on either Interjet, AeroMar, Volaris or Aeromexico. There are plenty of taxis and shuttle services to take you there. Your cost of transportation to/from San Cristobal is on your own. Taxis are about $55 USD or 800 pesos. Shared shuttle is 180 pesos or about $10 USD.

Fine food and beverage is a cornerstone of our visit, too

Wednesday, February 24: On our first day in San Cristobal de las Casas, we orient you to the textiles of the Maya World. You will learn about weaving and embroidery traditions, patterns and symbols, women and villages, history and culture. After a breakfast discussion, we will visit Centro Textiles Mundo Maya museum, Sna Jolobil Museum Shop for fine regional textiles, meander the Santo Domingo outdoor market that takes over the plaza in front of the church, and visit two outstanding textile shops. We guide you along the walking streets to get your bearings. We finish the morning together with a Group Welcome Lunch. (B, L)


Carnival in Tenejapa, Chiapas

Thursday, February 25: Tenejapa is about an hour and a world away from San Cristobal de Las Casas. Today is market day when villagers line the streets filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and household supplies. Peer into dimly lit doorways to find hidden textile treasures. We’ll meander the market to see what’s there. In years past, I’ve found some stunning shawls, huipils and bags. Keep your eyes open. Then, we will visit the outstanding textile cooperative founded by Doña Maria Meza Giron. After a box lunch at the centuries- old Romerillo Maya cemetery, we continue on up another mountain to visit Maruch (Maria), a Chamula woman at her rural home. Surrounded by sheep and goats, Maruch will demonstrate back strap loom weaving and wool carding, and how she makes long-haired wool skirts, tunics and shawls. Perhaps there will be some treasures to consider. Return to San Cristobal de Las Casas in time for dinner on your own. (B, L)

Maruch using a warp board called stairway to the moon to prepare back-strap loom
It was cold in the Chamula highlands at over 7,000 feet altitude

Friday, February 26: After breakfast, we set out for a full morning at Na Bolom, Jaguar House, the home of anthropologist Franz Blom and his photographer wife, Gertrude Duby Blom. The house is now a museum filled with pre-Hispanic folk art and jewelry. We walk the gardens and learn about Franz and Trudy’s work with the Lacandon tribe and their relationship with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. After hot chocolate there we go to the outskirts of town to an outstanding women’s weaving cooperative that was founded over 40 years ago. You will learn about international collaborations and textile design that conserves traditions while meeting marketplace needs for exquisite and utilitarian cloth. After lunch on your own, we meet in the early evening to visit Museo de Trajes Regionales and humanitarian healer Sergio Castro, who has a large private collection of Maya indigenous daily and ceremonial dress representing each Chiapas region. (B)

Sergio Castro explains Naha Lacondon jungle rituals

Saturday, February 27: We set out by foot to a nearby textile collaboration that houses three different cooperative groups, one of which is founded by Alberto Lopez Gomez who was invited to New York Fashion Week in 2019. We hear presentations about creativity, style, innovation, and how to incorporate tradition while breaking new ground. Next, we stop at Los Leñateros, the hand-made paper workshop that is also a graphics arts print studio. You will have the afternoon and evening on your own. (B)

Alberto Lopez Gomez combines tradition with innovation and creativity

Sunday, February 28: This is a big day! First we go to San Lorenzo Zinacantan, where greenhouses cover the hillsides. Here, indigenous dress is embellished in exquisite floral designs, mimicking the flowers they grow. First we meander the open-air market, then visit the church, bedecked in fresh flowers. Next stop is magical, mystical San Juan Chamula where the once-Catholic church is given over to a pre-Hispanic pagan religious practice that involves chickens, eggs and coca-cola. You’ll find out why. We’ll roam Chamula’s abundant textile market, compare and contrast fabrics and designs. (B, L) Dinner on your own.

Alejandro and Maria Meza Giron, Tenejapa
Magdalena Aldama back-strap loom weaving, the finest

Monday, March 1: Today, we make a study tour to the textile villages of San Andres Larrainzer and Magdalena Aldama. This is another ultimate cultural experience to immerse yourself into families of weavers in their humble homes. We will see how they weave and embroider beautiful, fine textiles, ones you cannot find in the city markets or shops. They will host a show and sale for us, and we will join them around the open hearth for a warming meal of free range chicken soup, house made tortillas, and of course, a sip of posh! (B, L)

Hearty lunch Rosita + Cristobal, Magdalena Aldama, Chiapas
Bitty peeks out from behind exquisite cloth, San Andres Larrainzar

Tuesday, March 2: This is expoventa day! We have invited one of the finest embroiderers of Aguacatenango blouses, an amber wholesaler, an organic coffee grower/roaster, and other artisans to show and sell their work. Afternoon is on your own to do last minute shopping and packing in preparation for your trip home. We end our study tour with a gala group goodbye dinner. (B, D)

Enjoying cocktail hour in hotel garden before gala dinner

Wednesday, March 3. Depart. You will arrange your own transportation from San Cristobal to the Tuxtla Gutierrez airport. The hotel guest services can help. It takes about 1-1/2 hours to get to Tuxtla, plus 1-2 hours for check-in. Connect from Tuxtla to Mexico City and then on to your home country.

What Is Included

• 8 nights lodging at a top-rated San Cristobal de las Casas hotel within walking distance to the historic center and pedestrian streets

• 8 breakfasts • 4 lunches • 1 grand finale gala dinner

• museum and church entry fees

• luxury van transportation

• outstanding and complete guide services

The workshop does NOT include airfare, taxes, tips, travel insurance, liquor or alcoholic beverages, some meals, and local transportation as specified in the itinerary. We reserve the right to substitute instructors and alter the program as needed.

Cost • $2,695 double room with private bath (sleeps 2) • $3,195 single room with private bath (sleeps 1)

Melanie adorned in pompoms and her Cancuc huipil

Reservations and Cancellations.  A 40% deposit is required to guarantee your spot. The balance is due in two equal payments. The second payment of  30% of the total is due on or before October 1, 2020. The third 30% payment is due on or before December 15, 2020. We accept payment using online e-commerce only. We will send you an itemized invoice when you tell us you are ready to register. After December 15, 2020, there are no refunds. If you cancel on or before December 15, 2020, we will refund 50% of your deposit received to date. After that, there are no refunds.

All documentation for plane reservations, required travel insurance, and personal health issues must be received 45 days before the program start or we reserve the right to cancel your registration without reimbursement.

How to Register:  First, complete the Registration Form and send it to us. We will then send you an invoice to make your reservation deposit.

To Register, Policies, Procedures & Cancellations–Please Read

Pom poms are us, and Sheri models them well!
Meet our guide, Alejandro — a knowledgeable textile and cultural translator, too

Terrain, Walking and Group Courtesy: San Cristobal de las Casas is a hill-town in south central Chiapas, the Mexican state that borders Guatemala. The altitude is 7,000 feet. Streets and sidewalks are cobblestones, mostly narrow and have high curbs. Pavement stones are slippery, especially when walking across driveways that slant across the sidewalk to the street. We will do a lot of walking. Being here is a walker’s delight because there are three flat streets devoted exclusively to walking. We walk a lot — up to 10,000 steps per day at a moderate pace. We recommend you bring a walking stick.

NOTE: If you have mobility issues or health/breathing impediments, please consider that this may not be the program for you.

Traveling with a small group has its advantages and also means that independent travelers will need to make accommodations to group needs and schedule. We include plenty of free time to go off on your own if you wish.

Sunnie and Phoebe from behind a flying shuttle pedal loom at rest

Wedding Fiesta: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca

Mucha Fiesta! I knew it would be BIG when two giant tents went up three days ago beyond the tall concrete walls that separate my neighbors from me. I steeled myself for a really BIG party. I even thought I should high tail it to the city for the night to escape the sound of music.

I knew it would be LOUD. I wasn’t sure how loud. And, since I had been up since 5 a.m. to say goodbye to my sister and brother, I thought earplugs would block out the sound by the time I went to bed, early. WRONG.

There are no photos of this wedding fiesta. Only the SOUND OF MUSIC. Here, in this video, just mere feet from my bedroom window. This is what its like living in the village of endless fiestas. Sooner or later, they come to your back door.

Now, a word about weddings. They go on for three days. This is the tradition. There’s the party. Then, the after-party (that’s today, Sunday, and the music started at 11:30 a.m.). And, the clean-up crew party hearty on the third day. Usually there is barbecue beef or pork, plenty of tortillas, beer and of course, mezcal. And, always leftovers.

The music for this one started around 2 p.m. and went until 2 a.m. or so …. It probably wasn’t interrupted by the earthquake that shook my bed at around 11 p.m. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t sleeping, and the quake wasn’t as strong the music.

Another word about weddings. There is the civil wedding, the legal wedding performed by a justice of the peace, and recognized by the state. Then, there is a church wedding. Church weddings can cost $50,000 USD or more, and that’s why many young couples wait for the church wedding until they can afford it. Some never have one.

The one next door was a church wedding. They have been married for years and have children, but the church wedding is icing on the cake. To have children at the wedding altar in church is a common practice here. If children are young, they are sometimes baptized during the wedding ceremony, too. Since the priest comes from another village, there can be several weddings in one day, as was the case yesterday.

I could hear the Jarabe del Valle and firecrackers echoing throughout the village from more than one fiesta site.

In the morning at around 10:30 a.m. a village band led the procession of bride and groom from home to church. We could tell when the ceremony ended because the cohetes (firecrackers) shot up in a trail of smoke from the church courtyard about a mile away.

Rosca de Reyes topped with candied fruits, stuffed with plastic Baby Jesus

Tomorrow is Day of the Three Kings. I’m certain all the markets are filled with Rosca de Reyes today. The fiestas continue. We roll from one to the next, with weddings, baptisms, funerals, birthdays and anniversaries in between. Fiestas are part of the culture and tradition of Oaxaca life. Let’s celebrate!