Feast of the Virgin

Today I´m not going to be writing about a touching event or something that provoked deep though but rather just something that I got to be a part of last night. Yesterday I went to the market, as I often do, with Lorna and on the way back we took a collectivo which means we took a cab with 6 other people (yes there were 8 of us in one cab) and as we passed one of the churches we noticed that they were building some kind of structure outside. We asked the others in the cab what it was for and they said that yesterday was the feast of the virgin recognizing the death of Mary. We got back to the house and decided to go see what the festival was all about. We got there about 8:30 and there were a lot of people there as well as a couple of live bands and then those large wooden structures. We got a good spot and as we did a lady walked up and offered us a drink. The drink was some kind of spiced hot chocolate and it was really good. The next part was one of the more interesting parts of the event.

All of a sudden we heard a firework go off and look to see a guy holding a paper and wood bull with sparks flying from it and an occasional firework shot from it. He then proceeded to run through the crowd as everyone ran away or huddled to avoid the sparks. They did this about 5 times and I guess it was there version of running with the bulls. After the last bull was done the music an dancing started and went on for about 20 minutes. Next, we figured out what the structures were, they were big towers with fireworks and they were pretty fun to watch. They structures had different parts and each one would go off separately like spinning wheels, globes, and boxes of sparks and the final was a part on the top that shot into the air spinning and shooting sparks and then when it peaked it blew up into a firework.

I just thought I´d share this experience with the rest of you and I´ll try to get on later today or tomorrow to update my blog on a more serious note, there are a couple of things I´ve been meaning to write about but just haven´t quite found the time.

Peace,

Brandon