I woke up this morning with gunpowder splotches on my yellow shirt. Some of them came off with a little soap and water but where had I….ah, the devil in the street last night. The mad, prancing guy with the wooden framework of mini-skyrockets strapped to his back and the red devil mask. The crowds walking in front of yet another religious procession, with the four feet high statue of the Virgin Mary in blue and gold, bounding along the uneven cobblestone streets of Antigua. The clouds of smoke and incense and the children scattering, fleeing the devil and his blazing fireworks. The streets in the morning, although swept up immediately after the crowd passed, are still littered in multi-colored shreds of paper, spent rockets and leftover pine needles scattered for their fragrance. This has been going on nightly since December 7 with the official start of the holiday season. On that night, at 6pm, everyone religiously sweeps out their house, and the devil is tossed out with the trash and set on fire.
In Guatemala there is a strange fascination with fireworks and especially the mortars: visualize a three foot section of metal pipe, perhaps four inches in diameter, with a sturdy metal base. The explosive package is dropped in the top and the four foot fuse is lit. The sparks race along the burning length and then…whompf! Up in a cloud of smoke the now blazing pyrotechnic goes….200 feet later, a mighty blast…Bam! White smoke is all that remains of the shot. The two boys ready another round. What any of this has to do with Jesus, Mary and or the Holy Ghost, no one has been able to tell me. All I know is that its been going on since the 7, 8th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and on Christmas day, at the stroke of noon, more bombas and firecrackers. According to the schedules I’ve found, we may have a break until the 31st and the 1st. Given the amount of firecrackers already consumed, they’re probably waiting for another Chinese ship-load to come in. My ears are ringing, the church bells are ringing and how do you get gunpowder out of your shirt?
Later today, an overnighter to Escuintla, that charming town by the Pacific coast: an article about Guatemalan 'love hotels' and another on a gringo-owned pleasure palace known at the Jet-Set...just a few of the holiday sacrifices we make your your entertainment.
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