Radishes for Christmas

I was on the Internet recently when something caught my attention:

a headline via Twitter that read: 

Survived the Mayan Apocalypse? 

Here come the Radish People.

The headline was for NPR Blogs,

specifically a blog written by Maria Goody on December 22, 2012.

And Maria wasn't speaking metaphorically.

She really meant radish people.

Really.

Goody explains that the kind people who live in Oaxaca, Mexico

observe a 115-year-old Christmas tradition: 

La Noche de Rabanos, the night of the radishes.

During the festival, they gather in a public market 

and commence to sculpting giant radishes into a variety of figures.

Here's a  photo by Michael Benanav that depicts a radish nativity scene:

photo by Michael Benanav on NPR.org

I admire the sheer creativity of  food as art.

And it just goes to show that playing with food 

is not always dawdling.

It can be an act of reverence, culture, and community

and a way to express the wonder of it all.

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