Navidad in Antigua
Christmas in Antigua, why would you ever go anywhere else?? We went to the biggest most active church in town, La Merced, where the sidewalks were lined with street vendors setting up grills and comals and boiling oil and were making tacos, bunuelos, grilled chicken etc. etc. Everyone in town was milling around, lighting sparklers, eating food, catching up on gossip and waiting for the parade. At 9PM the church bells go completely berserk for several minutes and so begins the parade de los gigantes.
The procession begins with tons of smoky braziers and emerging out of the smoke are lantern bearers carrying stained glass candle lit lanterns and lining up on either side of the sidewalk. Through the corridor they create come los gigantes, people wearing and manipulating giant puppets of various things, mostly huge human heads with uncertain significance. Los gigantes process through the corridor and do a little circular dance on the plaza and then vanish into the church. Then many many more church bells and as the last one fades out, the fireworks start. It´s the kind of fireworks display I have rarely seen, even during 4th of July in the US. 15 to 20 minutes of huge beautiful fireworks over the cathedral, ending in big display and everyone applauding. Then comes a float up the lantern corridor on the back of a pickup truck with an angel holding the baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph behind her. The truck stalls out at the church steps and needs several people to hop out and push it up and then they ceremoniously remove the statues and process into the church and begin the Noche Buena mass.
We left at this point and went and did our own thing at the hotel until midnight when the whole town exploded with fireworks. From the rooftop plaza of the hotel there were fireworks in the air at every quadrant of the city and loud fireworks on the ground in every street in town. Men would run into the street, light the fireworks, cover their ears and run for cover into the doorways until the fireworks were done and then repeat repeat repeat, solid noise and color for the first part of Christmas day. Lorien and I stood on the bench at the plaza and watched the fireworks until they stopped, around 1230AM. This is repeated at noon on Christmas day, which is the official time to kiss and hug everyone you know and wish them a merry Christmas.
Very cool. If I had a chance, I would come back here every year.
The procession begins with tons of smoky braziers and emerging out of the smoke are lantern bearers carrying stained glass candle lit lanterns and lining up on either side of the sidewalk. Through the corridor they create come los gigantes, people wearing and manipulating giant puppets of various things, mostly huge human heads with uncertain significance. Los gigantes process through the corridor and do a little circular dance on the plaza and then vanish into the church. Then many many more church bells and as the last one fades out, the fireworks start. It´s the kind of fireworks display I have rarely seen, even during 4th of July in the US. 15 to 20 minutes of huge beautiful fireworks over the cathedral, ending in big display and everyone applauding. Then comes a float up the lantern corridor on the back of a pickup truck with an angel holding the baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph behind her. The truck stalls out at the church steps and needs several people to hop out and push it up and then they ceremoniously remove the statues and process into the church and begin the Noche Buena mass.
We left at this point and went and did our own thing at the hotel until midnight when the whole town exploded with fireworks. From the rooftop plaza of the hotel there were fireworks in the air at every quadrant of the city and loud fireworks on the ground in every street in town. Men would run into the street, light the fireworks, cover their ears and run for cover into the doorways until the fireworks were done and then repeat repeat repeat, solid noise and color for the first part of Christmas day. Lorien and I stood on the bench at the plaza and watched the fireworks until they stopped, around 1230AM. This is repeated at noon on Christmas day, which is the official time to kiss and hug everyone you know and wish them a merry Christmas.
Very cool. If I had a chance, I would come back here every year.
posted by KBARRETT at 12:05 PM
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