Twas
the night before Christmas, but twasn’t as quiet as a mouse in Guatemala. It
rarely ever is, but in the days leading up to Christmas, things get even louder
and louder.
For
weeks already there have been processions and celebrations in my neighbourhood.
There’s the daily children’s procession with kids carrying a brightly lit
statue of the Virgin Mary, preceded by children playing, if you can call it
that, turtle shells and singing songs. There’s the popular tradition of the
mobile disco with different dance groups such as the Abuelitos (dancers dressed up as old people), the Monsters (which
speaks for itself), the transvestites
and the Wild Beasts, the latter seeming to consist of a bit of everything.
This
year we even had real drama on the streets with a theatrical confrontation between
angels and demons. Then there are of course the “normal” processions. And last
night Santa visited too.
Employees
receive an extra salary this month and many stores gladly help them spend it by
offering great discounts and having huge speakers in the doorway. Because, as
every one knows in Latin America, the more
noise you make the more you sell.
The
market, a busy beehive on any day, is almost impossible to visit right before
Christmas. Half of the people try to make a bit of money while the other half haggles
for the best deal. Ambulant vendors sell everything imaginable, from underwear
and Christmas decorations to curtains, remote controls and selfie-sticks. The
vendors who have a permanent stands fight the ambulant ones with foot and nail
to get them off their turf while the municipal police try to stop the stand
owners from invading the public space with their merchandise. It’s a lost
battle for al parties involved. Only the pickpockets thrive.
The
yearly Christmas market is an explosion of colour and sound, offering
everything for a traditional Christmas. I love the backdrops for the nativity
scenes, hand painted on drab coloured cardboard that gives them a gorgeous
vintage look. There is moss, sawdust in every colour, cribs, complete
three-story stables, pinecones, glittery streamers, bells and whistles… Lights,
lights, Christmas lights everywhere, flickering and beeping their high-pitched
Christmas tunes all at ones. And maybe best of all, hundreds, no thousands of
small ceramic figurines for the nativity scene. Colourful men playing the
marimba and maracas, pastors with sheep, chickens, geese, dancers, horse,
infants, kings and many, many more. I thought it would be a nice idea to buy
small ceramic dogs for my dog-loving friends, but it turned out dogs never
attended the nativity scene. Apparently chickens, geese, marimba players and
even one zebra did attend, but dogs,
no. It let to some hysterical conversations with the vendors but in the end I
went home empty handed.
Tonight
there will be mass and family visits. Lots of tamales, music drinking and to
top it off, lots of fireworks at midnight.
And that’s basically it. Tomorrow at noon another round of fireworks, but
besides a few kids in their new clothes scavenging for recyclable firecrackers,
there’ll be hardly anybody on the streets.
That’s
Christmas in Guatemala.
So
for now, as they say here: Ho-Ho-Ho, Feliz Navidad!
