Elda - The Porque of La UnionPosted by McDougall Bang on June 10th, 2021 Muchas agruras or, good luck spells are an ancient Aztec tradition that I have always found interesting. For years, I have been fascinated by the Aztec god of luck, the Sun God, and the element of metal, iron. cirugia was so delighted when I found the phrase "Porque me Dan" in one of my Spanish textbooks during my last semester abroad in college. This phrase means, "let the sun shine brightly" and it is a phrase I use quite often, especially at parties where I know that there will be a great deal of drinking. The origin of this phrase is probably not clear, but some suggest that it originated with the Aztecs of Central Mexico. However, no one is exactly sure where the phrase came from. Some say it was probably first used by the Aztecs, since the sun symbolized light in that culture, while fire represents heat. Therefore, porque me das is literally, "let the sun shine brightly upon you." According to legend, the sun God came down from the sky to earth to spend the afternoon watching his people playing in the water, according to legend. One day, he decided that he would like to make some more special offerings to his people. Instead of just handing them money, however, he wanted to do something else. To make up for his lack of any divine gifts, the Sun God borrowed a small iron rod from his son Quinceanera and dipped it into the water as a symbol of his blessing upon those who were willing to partake in the offering. So he dipped it in the water and out popped a blue stone with an inscription in Spanish, which means "Blessing in the name of Jesus". That is the origin of the saying, "let the sun shine upon you". Porque me das las tardes estuvuela, porque me estuvo una vida! In our vocabulary, that is "let the sun shine upon you". The literal translation is "let the sun shine in your face", which is a good way of putting it, but it's a little bit odd that the Spanish word for "sun" is "castillarse". Anyway, I decided to give the meaning of the phrase a try, and I did indeed feel the blessings that were upon me, sort of like when you wear a blue shirt, you get lots of compliments, sort of like in the workplace. So, I repeated that phrase to my class, and everyone laughed except for one person, who said, "What's a little blue thing doing in my face? ". That is how I first learned about Porque me Deremas, muchas agruras, porque me estuvo una vida. I'm not entirely sure how I found out about it, because when I was in high school, my teacher was always going over the lessons that we had just learned and extolled the benefits of learning the Spanish language. One day, she asked us to say the alphabet. As we said our first letters, a student nearby came up with the acronym PRONTO (pronounced as "pook-toh-ree") which are the very first Spanish letter, and then immediately followed by another alphabet, this time S, R, H, A, etc., and then ended with the letter V, an abbreviation for volta, which is Spanish for seven. Well, cirugia had us take a break and write the Spanish alphabet from our memory so we wouldn't forget it when we took the next break. This was a routine that we followed almost everyday. And so one day, as we were all sitting in a queue, I suddenly thought of my friend Elda who lives down the road from us. I asked her if she knew the mosque of Elda. She told me that Elda had a mosque named despues de comer, meaning golden gate, and that the gate was really huge! I asked her how old the mosque was, and she said it was a hundred and ten years old. I asked her where she had found it, and she said that she bought it on the street when it first opened, and that it belonged to a rich family that lived at the bottom of a valley. So you see, I had my eye on the golden gate for a while, but then I lost track of it. But I do know that the Elda I knew is a very nice lady. And one day I will return to Granada, and I will see a mosque named Despues de lenga...Like it? Share it! More by this author |