brain crabs

A Bit More on Easter

So, a bit more on Easter: Mexicans like explosions. That is the conclusion I have drawn from witnessing Easter here. I have begun to see their point of view on the matter—explosions are sweet. On Saturday night (while watching War of the Worlds, funnily enough) we were startled by the sound of fireworks. This is sort of strange because we have become rather accustomed to the fireworks and even learned to sleep through them. We went to the window to find that a huge party/ceremony of some sort was going on at the church at the end of our block. The bells were tolling loudly and really bright, beautiful fireworks were being set off on the church lawn (perilously close to onlookers, might I add). There was also some kind of procession accompanying the noise with a big glowing Jesus ( I think..), but we weren’t really close enough to see the specifics of it, as we were observing the whole spectacle by hanging out of our bedroom windows. I think the fireworks and bell tolling must have gone on for a half hour. We got ready for bed later that night with anticipation about what Sunday might have in store for us.

We decided to go to the square on Sunday morning to see if there was anything going on. When we got there, it was packed and everyone seemed to be congregating on one side of the park. As we walked towards the crowd we saw the piñatas. There must have been 15 or 20 of them, all to human scale and likeness. They were just dangling there on clotheslines, garishly painted, some clad in actual fabric, with big hoops attached around their midsections. At noon, the bells of the Parroquia began to toll and the first clothesline was pulled down to the ground and a piñata person was lit. Once released, the papier-machiet figure vaulted up on the line and spun furiously in space. The hoop fuse was glowing bright orange. Finally the figure slowed and halted. The fuse made a few crackling, sputtering noises. Nothing. The disappointed crowd sighed. The clothesline dipped again and another piñata came up spinning. Again the spinning stopped and the fuse coughed, but this time—BLAM! It was like artillery ricocheting through the square, and the piñata person was obliterated in a shower of paper-machiet body parts. The crowd cheered and clapped furiously. So it went with the rest of the figures. Some exploded, some were duds. The crowd reacted animatedly. One piñata failed to explode but caught on fire. The crowd whistled and cat-called as it’s clothing burned away, revealing its crude paper-maché body. After about the first eight explosions, we got the idea and sore ears, so we decided to head off for a walk. Everything except the tourist spots was closed. On our way home, we passed several people, young and old, tourists and locals carrying dismembered parts from the piñata people. An old gringo man was proudly displaying a head he had snagged from the carnage. It was gruesome and hilarious. I found myself wanting to go home and put marshmallow peeps in the microwave, but alas, there wasn’t even a single chocolate bunny to be found here… oh well. Mexican Easter was great anyway.

This entry was posted by jon on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 7:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.