Twas The Night Before Navidad in Mexico

Written by Kriss Hammond


Twas The Night Before Navidad in Mexico

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Mexico City - Christmas celebrations in Mexico are marked by diverse traditions and attractions which, combined withrepparttar sunny weather, drive thousands of tourists torepparttar 133695 country duringrepparttar 133696 winter months of December and January. It is during this time that visitors to Mexico will experiencerepparttar 133697 unique traditions and warm hospitality ofrepparttar 133698 country at its best as Mexicans countrywide celebraterepparttar 133699 ultimate fiesta with sumptuous regional holiday cuisine, colorful and ornate decorations and traditional festivities.

One ofrepparttar 133700 most impressive Mexican holiday customs are Las Posadas. A longstanding tradition carried out nightly from December 16 through 24,repparttar 133701 Posadas are a religious and social celebration, paying homage torepparttar 133702 biblical journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Before becoming an annual tradition,repparttar 133703 nine days of processions were created to teachrepparttar 133704 story ofrepparttar 133705 birth of Jesus and to coincide withrepparttar 133706 nine day Fiestas ofrepparttar 133707 Sun, which celebratedrepparttar 133708 virgin birth ofrepparttar 133709 Aztec Sun God, Huitzilopochtli.

Onrepparttar 133710 nine nights before Christmas, a party is held in a neighborhood home. At dusk,repparttar 133711 guests gather outsiderepparttar 133712 home to watch a procession of children and musicians dressed in colorful robes and bathed inrepparttar 133713 glow of candlelight. Oncerepparttar 133714 singing procession reachesrepparttar 133715 home, one half entersrepparttar 133716 home whilerepparttar 133717 other half remains outside to sing a plea for shelter inspired by Mary and Joseph's plea torepparttar 133718 innkeeper. The doors are then opened, andrepparttar 133719 celebration begins with plenty of food and drink for all. The last posada, held on December 24, is followed by midnight mass.

The Ghosts and Legends of the Queen Mary

Written by Kriss Hammond


The Ghosts and Legends ofrepparttar Queen Mary

Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/cruise02/mary/mary.html

You could callrepparttar 133694 Queen Mary a floating museum, now that she is permanently dry docked inrepparttar 133695 Long Beach, California harbor — but she is much more than a icon of a glorious past.

Queen Mary StatisticsShe is emotional nostalgia.

She is a representative of not only an era of distinguished travel, but also a huge Art Deco memento torepparttar 133696 still living veterans of World War II. The Queen Mary was a major instrument of war, then of peace. She ferried thousand of troops fromrepparttar 133697 Pacific theater from 1940 to 1942 and then from North America torepparttar 133698 European theater — and she still to this date holdsrepparttar 133699 record ofrepparttar 133700 most passengers carried on a single voyage — 16,000 GIs.

Many ofrepparttar 133701 exhibits onboardrepparttar 133702 Grey Ghost are representative of her days as a troop carrier. Longer thanrepparttar 133703 mighty Titantic,repparttar 133704 Queen Mary wasrepparttar 133705 fastest ship onrepparttar 133706 high seas, evenrepparttar 133707 Wolf Pack U-boats couldn't keep up to her amazing 28.5 knots. Why was she calledrepparttar 133708 Grey Ghost? She was painted a military camouflage grey and she glided throughrepparttar 133709 starry, wind swept waters like a ghost — and if you takerepparttar 133710 Ghost and Legends Tour, you will learn that many passengers thQueen Mary Historic Time Lineat died on-board (over 40) during her trans-Atlantic crossings often reappear at odd times and locations — dressed in vintage period fashions.

And then there arerepparttar 133711 330+ British sailors that were killed in a highly top secret and tight-lipped disaster. The Queen Mary was so fast that one of her escort cruisers,repparttar 133712 H.M.S. Curacoa (Kir-A sow-a), tendering her offrepparttar 133713 coast of Scotland, crossed her path and proved too slow. The Queen sliced throughrepparttar 133714 cruiser's mid-section and sunkrepparttar 133715 warship in minutes, taking those lives to their secret, watery grave — andrepparttar 133716 news never appeared until afterrepparttar 133717 war to avoid alertingrepparttar 133718 Axis powers of her true North Atlantic route. The accident barely caused a ripple inrepparttar 133719 Queen, but a large section was gouged out of her bow superstructure, and you can see whererepparttar 133720 replacement steel was welded back in onrepparttar 133721 Ghost and Legends Tour.

Cruise From Long BeachThe Queen Mary is more than a museum or keepsake for an entire war generation. She is also today a fine dining experience and a wonderful 365-stateroom hotel. You can voyage fromrepparttar 133722 past torepparttar 133723 present inrepparttar 133724 museums, butrepparttar 133725 real artifacts arerepparttar 133726 staterooms made up exactly as they were duringrepparttar 133727 Queen's magnificent heyday.

The warm paneled woods and huge staterooms now offer outside cabin porthole views overrepparttar 133728 harbor of Long Beach. At one time you could draw warm seawater (heated byrepparttar 133729 ships enormous boilers) or freshwater for your bath — with special soaps provided forrepparttar 133730 seawater bathing that was de rigueur ofrepparttar 133731 day. Queen Mary still provides comfortable quarters and special milled soaps and toiletries, and maybe when you wake up inrepparttar 133732 morning for your morning juice your breaStay On The Queen Marykfast companion will be one of those ghostly apparitions readingrepparttar 133733 morning newspaper in your suite's antechamber. Don't laugh or mock — there have been such reports — and on many occasions, and recently.

I indulged myself forrepparttar 133734 all-inclusive experience as a modern-day passenger and I was amazed atrepparttar 133735 new renovations that included air conditioning and internet access, data ports, touch-tone direct dial phones, and king, queen and twin beds.

Stay At The Queen MaryThe ship wasrepparttar 133736 first to use that innovative material ofrepparttar 133737 times — plastic — Bakelite is found on certain areas of her hallway handrails. The Queen Mary hasrepparttar 133738 latest in fitness equipment, and a bustling business center. During her epic classical erarepparttar 133739 Queen had a squash court, swimming pools, grand ballroom, and a small, but well equipped hospital.

Just about every section ofrepparttar 133740 Queen Mary is now open for exploration. What a beautiful ship she is and I feel jealous that I am denied North Atlantic passage on her foot polished decks, rubbing elbows withrepparttar 133741 elite of North America and Europe. Celebrity passengers have includedrepparttar 133742 Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Liberace, Jack Benny, Gloria Swanson, and other Hollywood and royalty types.

The Queen Mary is now a private enterprise leased fromrepparttar 133743 City of Long Beach, which paid more than $3 million to bring her torepparttar 133744 port in 1967, a port that once was a hub of Liberty ship construction during World War II. My mother was a riveter atrepparttar 133745 Long Beach dockyards, so she must have knownrepparttar 133746 harbor well.

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