While I wrote about Cuban Catholicism for my encyclopedia-style summary, there are not any specifically Cuban churches existing in Minnesota. Because of this, I decided that the next closest thing would be to visit a Spanish-language Catholic mass. I visited St. Odilia Catholic Church in Shoreview, Minnesota. While St. Odilia is not an exclusively Hispanic community, they do offer a Spanish mass every Sunday afternoon. There is a relatively large Hispanic community in Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, and the surrounding areas which attend the mass. Upon walking into the church for the 12:45 PM mass, I noticed there weren’t many people there. There were maybe 50 people scattered throughout the church. As a few more minutes went by and it
…show more content…
The music that I am used to, to be honest, has always seemed quite boring and formulaic to me. At St. Odilia, however, the music was anything but that. The band that was playing the music seemed to be arranged in a variation of the traditional mariachi style, consisting of multiple guitars, violins, maracas, and unique percussion which I could not identify. The opening song was called “Éste Es el Día”, which translates to “This Is The Day”. The lyrics are based off the words in Psalm 118: “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”. At my church, I recall singing a near direct translation of this song many times. However, the version that I am accustomed to is, in my opinion, far inferior to the one I heard at St. Odilia. All of the parishioners sung along loudly, something that I have very rarely seen at a mass. As the priest walked down the aisle, he began to clap along with the beat and the entire crowd joined him. The fast pace of the song and the audience clapping along made for a very festive atmosphere, something that I would not have expected from a church service, but I very much enjoyed. It made me wish that my church would adopt a more festive approach to music. Another song that was played was titled “Resucito”. While this song wasn’t nearly as festive as “Éste Es el Día”, it was equally captivating to listen to because of …show more content…
From what I witnessed, I believe music takes on an added importance in a Spanish-spoken mass. It seemed liked a lot of the music in the Spanish mass drew from Spanish traditional music styles, which heavily rely on the use of guitars, maracas, violins, and other instruments. This is different from the music that I have grown accustomed to, which doesn’t seem to draw too much from any cultural influences but rather has become somewhat of its own genre of music. Another key musical difference was the level of participation from the audience. Almost everyone from the audience at St. Odilia participated and sung along passionately and loudly. In most masses I have attended, participation from the audience is somewhat low and at times nonexistent. I believe a reason for this is that Hispanic cultures seem to put more of an emphasis on the importance of music compared to American culture. While in America, music has become most notable as a part of the entertainment music, Hispanic cultures put more of a emphasis on the community aspect of music as opposed to the commercial aspect. While at St. Odilia, I sensed that music connected these people to each other more than music does for the average
The music that I am used to, to be honest, has always seemed quite boring and formulaic to me. At St. Odilia, however, the music was anything but that. The band that was playing the music seemed to be arranged in a variation of the traditional mariachi style, consisting of multiple guitars, violins, maracas, and unique percussion which I could not identify. The opening song was called “Éste Es el Día”, which translates to “This Is The Day”. The lyrics are based off the words in Psalm 118: “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”. At my church, I recall singing a near direct translation of this song many times. However, the version that I am accustomed to is, in my opinion, far inferior to the one I heard at St. Odilia. All of the parishioners sung along loudly, something that I have very rarely seen at a mass. As the priest walked down the aisle, he began to clap along with the beat and the entire crowd joined him. The fast pace of the song and the audience clapping along made for a very festive atmosphere, something that I would not have expected from a church service, but I very much enjoyed. It made me wish that my church would adopt a more festive approach to music. Another song that was played was titled “Resucito”. While this song wasn’t nearly as festive as “Éste Es el Día”, it was equally captivating to listen to because of …show more content…
From what I witnessed, I believe music takes on an added importance in a Spanish-spoken mass. It seemed liked a lot of the music in the Spanish mass drew from Spanish traditional music styles, which heavily rely on the use of guitars, maracas, violins, and other instruments. This is different from the music that I have grown accustomed to, which doesn’t seem to draw too much from any cultural influences but rather has become somewhat of its own genre of music. Another key musical difference was the level of participation from the audience. Almost everyone from the audience at St. Odilia participated and sung along passionately and loudly. In most masses I have attended, participation from the audience is somewhat low and at times nonexistent. I believe a reason for this is that Hispanic cultures seem to put more of an emphasis on the importance of music compared to American culture. While in America, music has become most notable as a part of the entertainment music, Hispanic cultures put more of a emphasis on the community aspect of music as opposed to the commercial aspect. While at St. Odilia, I sensed that music connected these people to each other more than music does for the average