I'm not a Grinch, I swear.

I live in a peaceful neighborhood on a relatively quiet block. The house is quite long, with the bedroom towards the back so that it is nicely removed from the street sounds. At night, all is quiet and I sleep well.

Except, that is, on obscure Catholic holidays. These occasions seem to happen quite frequently around here and apparently call for loud firecrackers bursting at all hours. This morning I was woken up at 4am by ongoing fireworks exploding practically next door. And they didn't just set off a few, they kept at it for about an hour. I put my earplugs in, but I could still hear them; those firecrackers are loud! Thankfully I was sleepy enough that I was eventually able to sink back into dreamland. But not before cursing "Ay, esos Católicos" (as Elder likes to say, shaking his head, whenever he hears fireworks) and starting to draft a blog entry in my head about those noisy Catholics.

And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! That's one thing I hate! The NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE! (To continue with the Dr. Seuss references)

But I'm not a Grinch, I swear.

I'm happy to put up with these ear-popping blasts for the big holidays like Semana Santa and La Griteria, when all of Leon gets decked out and into the party mood. (I got woken up one morning of Holy Week at 5am by a sad little marching band tooting down the block, and I found it sort of endearing.) However, on random weekends in mid-May, this is not cool. It's just plain inconsiderate. I'm all for the occasional raucous celebration and respecting different religious practices, but this is one I don't understand. Do they think Jesus will love them better the more neighbors they wake up as they loudly proclaim their faith? I seem to remember that Jesus taught us to love our neighbors. I believe this would include letting them get their beauty sleep.

To be fair, those Católicos aren't the only noisy Christians around. The Evangélicos can be pretty raucous too, with their big gatherings involving loud (often off-key) singing which they amplify for an entire neighborhood to hear. But at the very least they do this during waking hours.

So where are the quiet Christians? Oh right, they're in their beds trying to get some sleep.