Fire in the Sky

The Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe likes big cohetes.

Cohetes = fireworks. We missed the celebration on the 8th of the Virgin of Jucintla, because we discovered too late that the schedule of events is posted by the main door to each church. We therefore made a point of getting to the local church in San Felipe an hour prior to the 9:30pm fireworks to celebrate the December 12th day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

On our way there, we discovered that the perigrination through the town was already under way. We joined the tail of the procession, but since we couldn't see much from there, we left the procession and made our way to the church, so we could see everything as they arrived. The perigrination consisted of a 10-15 member brass band (I didn't count) and maybe 40 townsfolk. Four children were bearing a large cloth image of the virgin. Three adolescents led the procession: two bearing candles and the third with a crucifix on a 1.5m pole. Three very tall banners brought up the rear. The banner bearers had to carefully thread their way through the maze of overhead electrical and telephone wires as they made their way through the streets. We didn't see anyone get electrocuted.

The procession made its way into the churchyard, paused a few moments to hear a message from the sacerdote, then the banners were borne into the church and it was time for the cohetes.

OK, this wasn't exactly the start of the cohetes, just of the main event. Up until this point, one of the celebrants had been launching a rocket every few minutes, mostly alternating between small, quiet coloured bursts and brilliant white flares which would rise, then explode with a tremendous band. The rockets would launch up above the houses, do their bit, then fall somewhere. We didn't see anything catch fire. Even though it's very dry, most houses have clay or fibreglass roofing, which is not too flammable.

The main event was much more personal. It began with the mortar launch of a couple of very pretty large fireworks. Then out came the first dancer. A woman donned a heavy shawl, then on top of her head she held a large wicker construction with fireworks attached. The show began with a spinning wheel, perhaps representing the bull's nose. The band struck up a tune and the woman danced her way into a semicircular space left by the 40-60 onlookers. A man wearing a white mask and holding a white cloth danced in among all the flying sparks and waved his cloth at the bull. Then the dance got more vigourous as the bull's face caught fire and its ears started spitting sparks, which were directed at the other dancer and the crowd. To end the dance, the bull's horns began to shoot fountains of sparks, then exploded with loud bangs. And that was just the first dance: there were about 20 in all, mostly either bulls or human figures. The goal of the flaming dancer was to put on a good show and make life difficult for the other dancers, whose goal seemed to be to touch the fire dancer with a cloth or coat and generally to display their bravery by dancing among the sparks as close as possible to the fireworks. It's impossible to describe and remarkable to see.

The sleeve of one of tne of the fire dancers ignited from a spark: another girl beat out the flame with her shawl in time to the music. The fire dancers swung their wicker figures vigorously about: a couple of times, the wicker accidentally struck another dancer and bits came off and the fireworks went spinning or whirling away on the ground.

An old woman came up to us with a gas can full of moonshine and insisted that first Michelle, then I have a drink from her glass, telling us it would be rude to refuse. The moonshine was a bit spicy and went down easily enough.

Near the end, a rope strung across the front of the church was ignited and a curtain of sparks showered down over the (stone) facade of the church, bouncing from the shoulders of the saints. It was lovely. There were a few more fireworks launched into the sky as we made our way home.

There might have been a bigger fireworks display in the main city, but the spectacle at the San Felipe church was more than satisfactory.