More than a thousand students from the Salesiano de Masaya private school will dress up this Tuesday, January 31, to celebrate the “Saint of Youth”, San Juan Bosco. With the difference that they will not go out to parade in the streets and will stay touring their sports fields.
A source from the religious community limited himself to responding that the student body “cannot be exposed”, when asked for this report if this decision is due to the prohibitions of the Police not to allow processions to the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.
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Parents of families consulted do not dare to comment on the reasons for the type of internal celebration this year, on the date that the Church remembers the birth of the saint “to eternal life”, with his death at the age of 72, in 1888 in Turin. , Italy. The previous two years the celebration was internal and virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regarding the religious source, he evaded the issue of the prohibition of processions. The truth is that recently, on January 10, just a few blocks from the educational center, the police of the regime prevented the departure of the procession of San Sebastián in the church of Magdalena, located in the same neighborhood of Monimbó.
An almost century-old procession
In the same municipality, in November of last year it happened with the solemnity of Christ the King in the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción parish in Masaya and the procession in honor of the Cross. The first prohibitions began with the festivities in honor of San Jerónimo and San Miguel. In much of the country, similar situations are recorded.
The Salesians have been in Masaya for almost a hundred years, the same time that Don Bosco has been celebrated year after year, with the traditional procession and parade of primary and secondary students, accompanied by parents and the general population. Since 1926, the congregation came to these lands. The first religious of the order arrived in Nicaragua in 1912.
Part of the legacy of Saint John Bosco is that he “dedicated 100 percent to working with young people. Especially young workers. He was concerned that they learn a trade, teach them to read and write, to prevent them from stealing to eat. Train young Christians with values”, explained the source close to the congregation.
Salesian education is an icon in Masaya. They are currently in charge of training more than 2,000 boys and girls. Primary and secondary classes are taught in the private school, they also have a popular school in the Monimbó neighborhood and a preschool.
“We are a pastoral educational community animated by Salesian religious and lay people dedicated to integrally forming, educating and evangelizing, children and young people from the Masaya environment, so that they are good Christians and honest citizens, protagonists of society and the Nicaraguan church, inspired by the preventive system of San Juan Bosco”, reads the official website of the school.
there will be no decorated streets
“A lot of people decorated the streets and waited for the procession, both parents and people from the Monimbó neighborhood, because it was their procession,” recalled the mother of an active student and another already alumni.
The woman recalled that since three in the afternoon, the students arrived in their evening gowns to accompany the procession. The students wore black pants, a long-sleeved white shirt and a tie. Parents were on a par with their children. “A beautiful float would leave the school, with children dressed as Don Bosco or nuns,” she said.
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He adds that the tour was all over Monimbó, going down to the center of the city, going around the central park and returning to the school at around five in the afternoon to conclude with a mass in the San Sebastián church, which is part of the school. .
In her memory, the woman keeps the scene of almost three blocks occupied by boys and girls dressed as angels, archangels, little bushes (Don Bosco) and nuns, in Salesian processions. What fills her with satisfaction is that her children have had the opportunity to receive a good education with the Salesians.
Activities open to the public
The religious source highlighted that they have invited the population to participate in the saint’s novena, as well as the weekend movies on the life of Don Bosco.
This January 30th was the festival with surprises, dances, songs, Zumba, food sales and more. On the central day, today January 31, the celebration activities will be separated for primary and secondary students.
By: United Voices
