Festival Time

Last weekend I attended an annual festival held in San Juan de Oriente (a cute small town that makes pottery for tourists, locals and exporting). The party started on Friday night and ran through Tuesday night. I only attended on Sunday. The local people hand out typical Nicaraguan food to all visitors (rice, meat and beans). There is a giant canopy of fruit hanging in the middle of the town that was put up on Friday and is taken down and distributed on the last day of the festival for people to eat. The most exciting part of the festival is the organized fighting sessions. People fight one another in the streets using leather sticks made from animal parts (it is similar to a long whip). This tradition rather brutal, each fighter must agree to the fight and then there are rules as to where you can hit a person (you cannot hit anyone in the head). The fight ends when (a)one of the fighters gives up or (b)when a person dressed as a bull breaks up the fight. The whip does hurt and people are left bleeding or at least bruised.

When I attended the festival on Sunday there was also a funeral being held because one of the town drunks had partied too hard the day before and had overdosed on alcohol. Meanwhile, people are still celebrating the festival while there is a funeral procession walking around the town. Funerals in Nicaragua are very public events. First, the casket is paraded throughout the town and there is a very large funeral procession behind it. You can always count on seeing the Eskimo ice cream man somewhere in the procession trying to sell to the mourners. There is also usually some kind of music playing from 2 large stereo speakers placed in the flatbed of a truck.

In my town, every weekend a truck with 2 large stereo speakers in the flatbed goes around the neighborhood announcing who has passed away. In addition, they use the same method to convey upcoming events in the town. For example, this weekend there is a small carnival in my town (complete with a teacup ride and a merry-go-round). The truck came around the town a few days ago announcing this event to everyone and encouraging people to attend. The advertisement must have worked because the carnival was jam packed with people ready to celebrate.

The photos above show some of the pottery, which is sold in San Juan. Also, people are lined up on the side of the street to watch the festival activities.