Processions and Parades

JANUARY 31, 2010

Guatemala is known for its Patron Saint fairs (every town has at least one patron saint and likewise an annual festival to celebrate it). And each of the churches also have their own unique celebrations throughout the year. During these festivities, there are feasts of all sorts, processions where they parade the Saint around town, traditional dances (with costumes, of course) and an assorted array of other colorful activities. The Guatemalan version is an interesting mix since each town will usually include some specifically local element. Furthermore, these fiestas often include somewhat of a melding of original Spanish influences incorporated with Mayan traditions as well.

This procession I saw in Antigua was very somber; I perched myself on top of a rooftop restaurant terrace to effectively show the scale of the event:

The participants actually have to pay the church to enable them to share in the honor of carrying the 5-6 ton float for one block. About 80 people carry it at a time. And after each block they will switch to a different crew who will take over for the next block.

Here it is on the next block after they switched; in this block it is now all men carrying it.

It keeps moving along like this all over town for a duration of perhaps 8-10 hours. Here it is later that night; passing by the Central Park:

Here is a short video of it that night in the very crowded park:

CONFUSED DANCING DEVILS

This Patron Saint fair which I attended in a neighboring town (Ciudad Vieja) was a total party. The festival goes on for a week and they have one of the more elaborate celebrations in the country with parades, floats, processions, traditional food, fireworks and folkloric dances which include ‘dramas’ (little skits). Here is a video overview of the scene:

Most dancers/actors are men, but they play the part of women as well. Majority of the performances is “The Dance of the Devils and Death.” As I mentioned in a previous blog, Devils are REALLY big here! These performances are about 3 hours long and they will do them 3 times this day as well as once/day for the rest of the week. As you can see, this festival featured some interesting versions of ‘Devils’; they had black faces, yet blond hair; devil outfits, yet wings (like angels have). Talk about having an identity complex!

The Devils begin their skit; they start the Devil Dance. This video is a close-up of two devils dancing; notice their fangs!

In this video, one of the Devil's maidens is stating her case to the King Devil:

And there are many other skits besides the devils... warriors, pirates, cowboys... even Rastafarians!

Here is a video of a skit/dance of some kids dressed as cowboys, accompanied by the Marimba, the national instrument of Guatemala:

ROLLING OUT THE "RED" CARPET

Many times, in honor of the processions, church members will create elaborate and beautiful artistic “carpets” made of dyed sawdust, pine needles, flowers and other things like little statues, fruits and vegetables. These carpets adorn the processions' path. Yes, people spend hours constructing these intricate designs, only to have them destroyed as the processions trample all over them! These carpets (alfombras) were part of a procession welcoming priests from many Latin American countries during their annual conference at Antigua’s San Francisco church:

Here is a close-up to show the detail of one with sawdust:

And here is one of flowers and pine needles:

DANCE OF THE BIG HEADS AND THE GIANTS

This annual roving parade is unique to one of Antigua's churches, La Merced. The "Big Heads" and "Giants" roam the streets of the city for most of the day, stopping in some of the more public places (churchyards, parks, etc.). Their arrival is announced via a blast of some explosive firecrackers (extremely common down here) and then they proceed to dance around for a few songs until they move onto to the next place. This celebration is not religious in nature, rather its purpose is to celebrate the different cultures which exist in the world - notice that some of the paper mache heads are of differerent races. And the giants represent the different kings from different continents.

'Tis the Season to be Festive!

JANUARY 1, 2010

LIGHTS LIGHTS AND MORE LIGHTS

Mexico has it’s Zócalos (public squares), and every town in Guatemala has a Central Park. The Central Park of Antigua (Parque Central) is one of the most beautiful in all of Guatemala. And it is the epicenter of the action down here; a focal point for couples, friends and families to meet, hang out and to watch the world go by. The park is one square city block and is in the center of the city.

Here is a typical scene in the Park; a band from South America playing music from the Andes:

Here is the park on a Sunday afternoon late in the day, but with a special twist, since it is all lit up for the holidays (2 parts):

And here are some photos I took which feature the pretty lights; this one is one side of the park looking down the "main street" of Antigua:

Yours truly by the main fountain

AL FRESCO CONCERT IN THE PARK

On one side of Antigua’s Central Park is the stunning Cathedral; originally built in 1670 and then rebuilt after the great earthquake in 1773. On a normal day, it looks like this:

And at night it looks like this:

But, this one particular night about 2 weeks ago, something special took place. It was the annual Christmas Festival performance by Guatemala’s National Symphonic Orchestra; and they were accompanied by the Modern and Folkloric Ballet Troup. You have to admit, with this backdrop, it is a pretty splendid setting to see a concert - al fresco, amidst the beautifully lit ornate Cathedral. And it was especially nice because it was free ;-) And, since I only live 5 blocks away, it is a very convenient location - I didn't have to arrange any transportation or deal with any parking hassles!

Here is an overall view of how it looked that night. Yes, that’s right, the tiny little guy at the bottom in red is….. you guessed it… Santa was conducting the concert!

Here is a close-up of our friend from the North Pole:

Here are the dancers:

At the end, this guy lit himself (rather his “wings”) on fire and danced around (this is a tradition down here):

Here is a really good photo of what these on-fire “Wing Men” look like up close:

http://revuemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Revue2009-12Cover5.jpg

THE DEVIL BURNS

Speaking of lighting oneself on fire, I attended the annual “Burning of the Devil” festival here a few weeks ago. Devils are big down here, and so is burning stuff (especially firecrackers). The belief is, that just before Christmas time, everyone burns things (specifically Devils) to make way for a safe holiday. So people will buy small versions of the devils and cast them out on the street in front of their houses and burn them. Or they will just look around their houses and gather up stuff from their junk drawers and burn that. Many towns in Guatemala have some sort of Devil-burning celebration, of course Antigua is not without its own.

I couldn't get up close to photograph the Devil very well nor have I been able to find online photos or a video of the actual Devil in Antigua this year, but here is a good photo of the Devil from last year's burning in Antigua:

http://revuemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/24-holidays-f1.jpg

And this video will give you an idea of what an actual burning is like. I think this Devil burned in the Capital (Guatemala City):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4BUimcTMD0

Here are some photos I was able to take - I took this of the crowd so that you could see the surrounding scene:

Here are 2 photos of the Devil burning that night -kind of wimpy if you ask me! But I am a burning snob since I've seen the "Burning Man" burn twice in Northern Nevada!

And here is some random guy who was ‘lit’ on fire (same sort of “wings of fire” like I mention above in the Concert section) and he was running down the street:

All in all, given that they light this Devil on fire on a residential street between 2 gas stations and therefore are prohibited from making a really big explosive event (no pun intended), I would say that it was a fun and festive evening!

WELCOMING IN 2010

For New Year’s Eve, thousands of people gather in Antigua’s streets, congregating in two main places: the Central Park and around the famous arch. There are multiple stages with lots of entertainment (a huge variety of different musical groups and dancers) or some of the action is just taking place in the street, like the ever-present “wing-man” on fire, this time he is more like a dancing human firework launching station:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnb-Mr7yn-k

I couldn’t really find a good video or photo which shows the scale of how many people were in the streets, but at midnight they launch tons of fireworks and here is a mediocre video which kind of shows this. If you watch the whole thing you can see that every now and then they will pan down to show the park where the fireworks were launched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsmNkiFEiyw