By Manzanillo Sun Reporter from the January 2013 Edition
Christmas Trees
In Manzanillo we have noticed Christmas trees coming into the stores earlier and earlier. By the time Christmas arrives, the trees are dropping needles like crazy and totally dead.
The trees are just coming to the right temperature for automatic combustion. Below is the report on this industry in a recent article in the newspapers.
US and Canadian Christmas trees have flooded into Mexico in recent years, along with increased North American trade in everything from avocados to artisan liquor. This holiday season alone, more than a million trees have been imported over the Rio Grande to decorate homes celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, Mexico’s Environment Department reported.
The imports now outnumber the 700,000 trees provided by Mexican growers this year.
But not everyone sees the southward flow of pines as a welcome present. Some Mexican farmers and politicians complain they are fighting unfair competition from the wealthy subsidized US plantations. The issue even reached the Mexican Senate, which on Dec. 16 sent an official request to the Forest Department asking why more support has not been given to Mexican Christmas-tree growers.
Avocados
Mexico is the world’s largest producer of the Avocado. In fact, Mexico has 320,000 acres dedicated to harvesting the fruit. Nearly all of this acreage is in the state of Michoacan with Uruapan being the epicentre of production. It is the climate and minerals in the soil that help to make Mexican avocados the most abundant and arguably the tastiest. For this reason, most avocados consumed in the United States are from Mexico.
Mexican avocadoes are often bigger and juicier than US-grown avocadoes and are the most popular choice in much of the United States.
Ornaments
The largest ever Angel Ornament was made in Mexico. It was made in January 2001 by Sergio Rodriguez in the town of Nuevo León. The angel was 18′ 3″” high and had wing span of 11′ 9″! Perhaps the most amazing thing about the angel was that it was completely made out of old beer bottles, 2946 of them!
New Year Mexican traditions
On New Year’s Eve, women who want love and passion in the next year wear red underwear; for happiness and prosperity, yellow underwear; for health and well-being, green underwear; for true love and friendship, pink underwear; for hope and peace, white underwear.
An apple and a lime are placed at each entrance to the house and left until they start to implode; at which time they are buried. I find the sight of the apple and lime by each door rather amusing. Such mirth is not shared by Pablo, the other two-footed resident in the house so I generally end up throwing apple and lime out before the appointed time, perhaps ensuring the displeasure of whatever entity the placement of the fruit was designed to appease.
A peculiar habit of Mexicans is to celebrate the New Year by firing off a volley of shots into the air from any available firearm. The government has passed a law prohibiting this practice since what goes up, invariable comes down. However, each year there still are incidents of celebrants killed or injured by falling bullets, showing the practice has been curtailed but certainly not eliminated.
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Manzanillo Sun’s eMagazine written by local authors about living in Manzanillo and Mexico, since 2009
