Fiesta San Miguel

You know I've been busy when it takes me this long to post... I have so many things to share with you but for now we will start with my communities patron saint San Miguel celebration. A little history-

Every community in Paraguay has a patron saint, literally every one. That patron saint has a special day and there is always a celebration. It usually starts 12 days in advance with a rosary each night at the church and lots of loud fire works. The community spends those 12 days getting the church and the road of the church cleaned up, they plant flowers and hang flags and decorations. Then the night before the big day there are traditional dance performances from locals and from the children. The day of there is a mass and then everyone goes home for a big cook out/ lunch...then theres a big party/ concert with lots of dancing... its a pretty big event and if you wanted to you could go to one every weekend and just work your way around Paraguay. Each one differs but thats basically what a fiesta patronal entails.

So my community is San Miguel and it was this past Sunday the 29th. The 12 days leading up we had a rosary ceremony at the local chapel starting and ending with bombas or fireworks but really just annoying and extremely loud noisemakers.

Then on Saturday we prepared the streets for the celebration. We hung flags and banners and I helped my landlord clean, cut and de-weed my yard. Saturday night there was an awesome dance performance, I am sad because I forgot to bring my camera...but there were lots of kids in traditional dresses,  dancing and performing. There was also the very paraguayan traditional dance where a girl dances with 7 glass bottle stacked on her head. It was amazing, I was in awe, she twirled and spun and those bottles didn't move an inch. Next time I will not forget my camera.




Sunday morning started with another rosary followed by a mass. So many people came out for it, it was my first time really being around my whole community at once... I enjoyed it but it made me realize again just how big my community is and how small I am! After the mass there was a parade with a replica of the patron saint.

Then I went to a families house for a big asado or sunday cookout. We made sangria and ate a lot of meat! Then the longest weekend got longer and that night we went to the big concert/ party. It was your basic Paraguayan fiesta...a first everyone is sitting around drinking and talking then out of no where everyone starts dancing...and then we danced and had a good 'ol time.

When Monday came I didn't leave my house. I had been gone the whole previous week with peace corps business and I needed a day of rest or 5.... I will blog about last week later because it is very note worthy! So I survived my first fiesta patronal and will be going back to my first host families this Saturday for their fiesta patronal!