Ferria!

Ferria… where to begin?.. Well, ferria on a whole was a great experience. I had a lot of fun, and it was beautiful to see the community and its different parts come together to celebrate. However, the play by play is a little less picturesque than that!
I suppose it started with All souls day, on November 2nd. Although it isn’t actually part of ferria, it was a great day. This is a day where all of the families of the deceased in the cemetery here make the treck out to the cemetery and decorate the graves. I had never been to the cemetery here, never mind been to any cemetery where there were a sea of people with flowers and streamer-like decorations, so needless to say it was an experience. The sole purpose of the day is to visit the graves and decorate, to celebrate the lives of the deceased, and I suppose for the remaining family members to come together. Melissa and I walked over to the cemetery and ran into quite a few people there we knew, and had great conversations around the graves of their loved ones. We helped Isabel decorate her fathe’rs grave, and she and her daughter explained some details of the origins, or at least what I understood of them. Then we ventured around, looking at the beautiful decorations and the elaborate shrines that had been made. Later we ran into Melissa’s host family, and asked them if people from different religions were buried in different cemeteries. Melissa’s host dad then informed us that in fact everyone was buried at this one cemetery in town, because when you are dead it doesn’t matter what religion you are. The simplicity of it all! I returned a day later to take pictures, I just didn’t feel right playing photographer while people were mourning and celebrating.
As a group we actually missed the first day of ferria. It happened to fall on November 4th, and since it was a bit of a holiday in the states (or at least this is how we explained it), we decided to go into Tegucigalpa to watch the election. Not only do we not have a TV, but people with TVs here don’t generally have cable, and if they do they don’t get American stations, so we decided Teguc would be a better place for the unveiling of our new president elect. We ate pizza, took warm showers, and enjoyed ourselves as Obama spoke.
The next day, however, it was back to work. Somehow we were put on the schedule as working every day for ferria, and planning, assisting, and doing any leg work required any and every day. Fortunately or not we are some of the few people in town that have a car, and so we became the official errand-runners of this community wide celebration! We were glad to help, but after a few nights of knocks on the door at 9pm to go cut plants a half hour away for the following days events, we grew a bit wary. One day Sean and Joe got roped into driving around for 5 hours looking for bamboo.
The events themselves however were quite the celebration. Each day there was a 4 am rosary, then the decorating and preparation began. At 3pm there would be daily processions from various parts of Talanga, with different community groups or aldeas taking part in the march depending on the day. These processions (in pics posted earlier) had a lot of people from the different communities, banners, the ferria symbol, fireworks, a band, lots of decorated cars, and whoever felt like joining in. The symbol was a carried float type thing, with a giant hand to symbolize something and some idols to symbolize something else. The fireworks are in fact, so dangerous, that they are even outlawed in Honduras! Well, there are people, generally kids of about 10 or 12 years old that run ahead of the parade to announce the arrival. There is a band in town for that long week only, and they march and play in all the parades. Depending on the community, there are generally cars, borrowed or not, and a couple had access to big rig trucks to carry people and other things. It’s interesting to say the least. The parades process from a designated point for the day, usually close to the entrance to the aldea, or the closest part in town to the entrance to the community, and go, over the course of sometimes hours, to the place where the mass will be held that day. After the mass is a Novena, or a rosary type service, then there are food and drinks for everyone. Later often there are other parts to the celebration, depending on the day, but often we were too tired to partake!
Although each day was memorable for different reasons, there are a few that stand out more in my mind than others. One day we actually had our car decorated to represent a community where no one had a car to be in their parade. Crazy to think about an entire church community not having a member that had a car, but I guess that just goes to make a point about culture and life here. We went early one morning to wash our car in a nearby stream, as is custom here, with the help of some of the community members. Then we drove to someone’s house at about 9, and toiled at putting up cloth, streamers, flowers, paint, ribbon and who knows what else on our car over the next 4 or 5 hours. After a brief break we returned to pick up the car and get parading! It was fun to take part in these ventures, but exhausting.
Another day Melissa Amy and I just met the parade at the starting point, and walked with the community that was celebrating that day. After the procession (although we thought the band was great at first it gets old after an hour or so) we went to the designated mass spot for the day, a street that is near the park and the center of town. We were towards the end of the procession, so we didn’t initially have chairs, but usually we get the gringa treatment and people turn chairs over to us. I really don’t like this, but it allows us to then give them over to the elderly that may be standing, so it really does turn out well in the end. We were settling into the mass, and all of a sudden a bunch of cuetes, those darn fireworks, went off without warning into the crowd! Somehow only a couple people had minor burns, but we had thought the worst at first. These cuetes are just little bundles of explosives that are generally hand made, generally set off by untrained people, and that people set off at the most inopportune times possible. They go off during masses, at 4 in the morning, while people are milling about the streets. There are a couple types as well. One type is the typical firework type, where it is light, and propels itself upward, or whatever direction it happens to be pointed in, then explodes. The problem with these is that if they aren’t pointed up, the don’t go upward, and they don’t have a set amount of time before they go off, they just go off at their own leisure, meaning often they will only hake it yards before exploding. The second type is a type that is put in a metal tube with an open end pointing upwards, then the men light them, and run as they make ridiculously scary noises and hope to not get hurt. The last type is when a string/ fuse type apparatus attaches a series of ten or so with just centimeters separating the small groups of explosives. These are really only dangerous to people within a 100 yard radius, but when all of Talanga is out celebrating for ferria, that means a lot of people.
Included in Farria is also the patron Saint’s feast day, or St. Diego day. There are lots of masses, school is cancelled, and people come to town from all areas to celebrate. The mass at 10am includes a procession of the various groups and the mayor and vice mayor are in attendance. There is a mass at 7pm that has people pouring out of the doors, followed my a lot of cuetes, and then some actual fireworks, as we would consider them in the state. Although there were about 7 of them, it was a nice show and the people really liked them. Everyone oohed and aahed, as we would on the 4th of July.
Ferria isn’t technically over until the 23rd of November, where there is a big expoventa, or fair type day out in the park. Every church group makes something, be it soup, baked goods, tshirts or other trinkets, and sells them. All proceeds then go to the church. We are making Pizza. It was the only American associated food we could figure out how to mass produce here.
Well that’s all for now. I will try and be better about posting. If I don’t get anything up before Thursday, happy thanksgiving to all!