As the title would suggest (and of course the date header of this post) it is a new year. It's a Happy New Year. Of course I do take exception to the fact that my name is used in the title of a major holiday and I have actually never given anyone consent to use my name. I guess that's for my lawyers to sort out. The last months of 2007 were very busy for me (after all, I'm just a little H Face); I travelled to Toledo (see my photo in the post below), Segovia, Malaga, Nerja, Jerez and Cadiz. Phew!Segovia was a beautiful city. Well what I could actually see of the city. It was very foggy and cloudy. However the sun made a rather brief appearance and allowed for an excellent photo op with me and its famous Aqueduct. For those of you who don't know, the Aqueduct is one of the most significant and best-preserved monuments left by the Romans on the Iberian Peninsula. It is also shrouded in some mystery. This is where the second part of my blog's title comes into play.
According to a popular legend, sloth (something I've been accused of being), rather than the Romans, was responsible for the construction of the aqueduct. A woman who worked as a water carrier (that job would suck!), tired of carrying her pitcher through the very steep streets of the city, made a deal with the devil: the devil could take her soul if water arrived at her doorstep before the rooster crowed. That evening, a great storm fell upon Segovia. The townspeople thought that this was a normal storm but the woman knew that it was the devil working to keep his part of the bargain. Now apparently, this lady freaked out! So she repented and prayed all night to avoid fulfilling the pact. I guess her praying paid off because according to the legend, the rooster crowed just before the devil could lay the final stone and yippee!! - the woman's soul was saved.
The woman confessed her sin to the Segovians who, after spraying the arches with holy water, were happy (the legend's word not mine although the italics are) to accept this new addition to their city. Convinced that a miracle had saved the woman's soul, statues of the Virgin and Saint Stephen were placed atop the aqueduct in commemoration. If you ask me it would have been easier to just order water coolers from the delivery service except that they wouldn't be invented until 1938.
Until my next post...be careful what you wish for and Happy New Year! (2008 registered trademark pending - H Face Inc.)
1 comment:
Excellent post HFace. It was foggy and rainy when I was there too! Maybe we were there on the same day. Not that I could have seen you what with the fog and the rain ...
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