Festejos Navideño

When the clock struck twelve on “Navidad” (the 24th), I discovered there was another big difference about Christmas here: there are fireworks, lots and lots of fireworks. Fireworks are sold for 2-3 weeks leading up to Christmas at any number of makeshift-stands that were put up in and around the market. Everyone has fireworks (even 4 year-olds). Hopefully we all remember my stance on fireworks here (reminder: they are more unpredictable and explosive than normal fireworks—I hate them (case in point: you all know what “poppers” are, right? Those things you can throw on the ground to make a nice popping sound? You know how you can usually snap one in your fingers without any bodily harm, right? Not here. The “poppers” here actually explode into a ball of flames, and while I’m not an expert in pyrotechnics, I’m pretty sure that snapping one in your hand would blow off all/part of your fingers)). Now, try and imagine what it would be like if every man, woman and child in a densely populated city had a mound of (dangerous) fireworks at their disposal, and further, that the only place they had to light them off were in the streets and on the sidewalks in front of their houses (or throwing them in the air as they were walking down the street), and further, that at the same time that the streets were being filled with fire, another group of people decided it would be a good idea to celebrate by jumping in their cars and racing throughout the city blaring their horns (and regularly running over lit fireworks (it’s a good thing that gas isn’t combustible or anything)). Describing the situation as total chaos doesn’t even begin to do it justice. My world was literally lit up “like the forth of July” (thank you Toby Keith). What amazed (and simultaneously embarrassed) me most was how my tense/frightened/fidgety mood was in stark contrast to the laughing/joyful/calm faces of all the locals. For example: a small child would run out into the middle of the street (avoiding the swerving cars and myriad of other explosions (did I mention that this was a small child… like 5 years-old?)), and light a string of (dangerous) explosives (o yea, the fuse lengths of the fireworks are all of variable timings and lengths, sometimes leaving only a moment for the person to stand up before it does its thing) and suddenly (this happened quite frequently surprisingly), nothing happened. There was no explosion, no bang, no nothing (remember that thing about the variable fuse length? Yea… well sometime that meant that it would take half a second, other times it meant it would take 20 seconds… never really figured out how to tell one for the other, and I don’t think anyone else had either). So naturally, the child would immediately run back out (avoiding cars) and try to pick-up/stamp out the firework (safety first). I was surprised in the fact that I was lucky enough to avoid seeing any injuries or hearing about any the next day. So maybe I’ll start a project advocating for firework safety standards…

About 30-58 minutes after midnight (as long as it takes for the WMDs to run out), then the people really start celebrating. The eating/visiting continues, mixed in with some (alright, a lot of) dancing and closed door celebrations. While we were all too tired (before you judge, remember that we’d been up all day visiting people in the community, and that we also wanted to get up the next day and celebrate Christmas Vol. 2) to join in the festivities, I think I recall the music being blared by neighbors finally settling down at around 4:30.
All things considered (the abundance of food, lack of injuries, etc), it was definitely a Christmas to remember (also, my host brother got a Wii for Christmas, so that’s been nice).