SILENSIO!

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IT'S GOOD FRIDAY!  SHHHHH!

In my grandma's generation, strict rules governed all 40 days of Kuaresma (Lent) : no parties, dances, picnics and so on.  During Semåna Sånta (Holy Week), the rules got more severe : no loud talking, no music from radios or phonographs, no laughing and playing in the streets and yards.

Americans living on Guam before the war remarked how Hagåtña came to a standstill on Bietnes Sånto (Good Friday).  Nothing was open; no one was on the streets.  People were all mainly in the churches (Hagåtña had two Catholic ones) and even the religiously indifferent who didn't go to church stayed in-doors.  The Americans were a bit put off by this, as they had nothing to do on Good Friday, and not by their choice.

As Martha and Elena in the video recount, people were warned not to go into the ocean during Kuaresma, or else they would drown.  Of course, there was the Babuen Kuaresma, but I posted on that last year.  Today, a few people still keep the old custom of being soft-spoken and abstaining from TV and music on - at least, of all days - Bietnes Sånto, the day Jesus suffered so much.