Saturday, September 5, 2009

Color Carnival #18 / The Swallows of San Juan Capistrano



This stained glass window honors the return of the swallows to San Juan Capistrano on March 19, of each year. It is St. Joseph's Day. On the following Saturday, immediately following their return, there is a parade in town. The famous birds' return to Capistrano indicates the coming of spring -- a time of renewal and rebirth.
The swallows migrate annually to Goya, Argentina in October and return to their spring and summer home in San Juan Capistrano each March. The swallows' celebration began centuries ago when mission padres observed that the birds' return roughly coincided with St. Joseph's Day on the church calendar, March 19.

5 comments:

Rinkly Rimes said...

A beautiful window and legend. Thank you for your visit.

Ebie said...

Hi Carolyn, I was off for a number of days and I missed a lot of your blog posts. I scrolled down below and the fiery glow of the skies are scary and beautiful. Everything has calmed down. Your photos of the mission are really awesome. I have been to three missions already. This is an artistic shot of the stained glass window.
P.S. We have scheduled some berry and apple picking in Oak Glen, and it looks like not this season.

Martha said...

How beautiful! Thanks for sharing this for the Color Carnival! :-)

Linda :) said...

So Pretty and the story to go with it too... :)

storyteller said...

Lovely choice for color carnival this week. It would definitely 'work' for Window Views too. I've missed a few weeks but did get my act together this morning and posted at Sacred Ruminations ;--)
Hugs and blessings,