Brian’s Microblog

March 13, 2026

Today is the fourth Friday of Lent (La Cuaresma), and a uniquely Oaxacan tradition is to celebrate El Día de la Samaritana. This tradition dates back to some time in the 1800’s when a couple of churches handed out water while preaching about the story where Jesus is crossing Samaria. In the story (as I, an atheist, understand it) the people of Samaria were not getting along with the Jews at the time. Jesus stopped near a the well of Jacob, thirsty from the journey, and a Samaritan woman ended up giving him some water despite their differences. Other churches in the area began copying this tradition and it has become a celebration of Oaxacan generosity based on religion but now open to all. Many restaurants and bars join the churches in handing out water-based drinks starting around noon on the fourth Friday of Lent. Many serve the drinks either from big clay pots or from coolers decorated to try to suggest a well.

We had our normal class in the morning, but at noon someone from the school brought some big coolers full of orchata and tuna (not the fish, which is atún, but a sweet fruit of a cactus) and we all got cups of orchata con tuna to drink. Then we did a little bit of class work before going with our instructors out in the streets with our cups to take part in the celebrations.

I had a substitute instructor for the afternoon today. During the class part she gave me a little printout of various Mexican slang words and expressions - very important stuff to know, carnalitos! Then she set out in search of a chilacayote (a type of squash) drink. We eventually found a gift shop serving it. The taste reminded me of rice milk, but my instructor said this was not a good example, and that they must not have made it correctly. We ended up not finishing those drinks but we found some peanut-flavored water that was very tasty, and later some jamaica (hibiscus) water. The streets were crowded, especially near the churches, and people were having a good time.

After the instructors left we wandered around a bit more with our cups. The event had mostly ended but we did find a restaurant that gave us some orchata with cantaloupe chunks in it that was really tasty. We were a bit tired so we chilled out in our little apartment for a while, then we went to the restaurant attached to the Boulenc bakery that we have been enjoying pastries from. We got some really tasty pizzas and now we have some leftovers as well.