ch of different dances for the festivities. One of them is a bunch of young people dressed up as cartoon characters in huge costumes, performing a choreographed dance. This is an all day event in which the group walks from town to town, stopping at someone’s house (my house here!) to have a snack and a drink before moving to the next town in the municipality. The dances aren’t anything crazy, but it’s pretty impressive to see forty dancing bears, pigs, bunnies, etc. doing a synchronized dance on a hot day. My favorite group of dancers through was “Las Viejas,” which had a bunch of younger girls and women dressed up wearing older women’s clothes and wearing masks, dancing as old women. I saw another version of this one with old men dressed up as old women. That one was a little less choreographed and a little more drunk. In their defense, it was late. The last dance that happens, the Fieros, is not choreographed but more so a big moving dance party (usually populated by drunk men dressed as women). This traveling dance party comes with a large live band that plays at a shockingly loud volume from a huge trailer and another truck that just carries speakers. All of these dances move to different locations throughout the municipality during the weekend.
As for the religious procession, depending on the size of the town, there are usually one to five floats that show passages from the Bible. My town just had one for the Virgin. Before the processions, people cover the streets with pine needles to show their faith and gratitude that they are passing by their home. In addition to that, they set off lots and LOTS of firecrackers and “bombas.” I have never seen more firecrackers in my life than last night. It was quite remarkable! My family had bought a huge circle of firecrackers (about two feet wide in diameter) that unwound with bombas throughout. When they lit it, everyone got inside the courtyard of our house and practically shut the door since the firecrackers went off for a few minutes. The procession didn’t get too far until the next house set off another slew of firecrackers and bombas. Colorful fireworks flew into the sky as more ash floated back down to the join the gray, dusty explosives’ remains.
Not too far down the street in the plaza, a the band had started playing again for the third time. Had I not been outside, I would have had to question whether or not they were playing directly in front of my house. Nope, just some typical Guatemalan music at a typical volume. One time for a homework assignment, I had to ask my host family to describe normal Guatemalan behavior. My host mom and sister laughed and told me, “You listen to music so that the neighbors can hear.” It’s true!
It’s sad to think that the month of fiestas has now passed, but Lent is coming up, which means a whole new slew of other religious festivals and traditions to observe. I was told that they don’t use too many firecrackers during Lent though. I’ll have to keep you updated.
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