It's the Holiday Season! (Part 1)

Here in the campo, however, it looks rather different from how it is in the States.
October didn’t have so much by way of actual holidays, but each of the Primarias around had its own “Día del Campesino”- “Day of the Peasant” (according to my dictionary...I’m living with the Panamanian peasantry!  (and there are pheasants as well)).  We also had the "23rd of October", which commemorates the Separation of Santa Rita (my town) from Cabuya (neighboring town), Halloween stuck in for the various Americans here, and then the 4 days of Separation from Colombia parades/celebrations from Nov 3-6.  Oh, and Día de los Disfuntos, Day of the Dead, on Nov 2.  And then later this month we have Thanksgiving, which you'll hear about in time, and the 28th of November, which is Independence from Spain.  And then la Navidad, which is a combination of Christmas and Christmas Eve, and New Years (which I will be spending in the good old US of A!!)...oh, and Mother's Day is coming on Dec 8, graduations (since the school year ends in Dec here).  And then some other little things in there for fun, which I believe includes a patron saint day in a town near Cabuya in December as well.  So, now, a peek at some of these festivities!
       
        Since I attended the Días of my Primaria, my other Primaria arriba, the Primaria de Cabuya Arriba, and “Rayitos del Sol”, which is a preschool-type-thing in town, I’ve gained a fairly strong understanding of what goes into one of these presentations.  The biggest was my main Primaria, which makes sense as it seems to be about the size of the other 3 put together, but the formula was essentially the same.

        The sites were all decked out in bits of folclorica, woven pencas, bundles of rice, oranges, grapefruits, bananas, and that sort of thing.  Very cultural :-)  Bits of folclorica involves the giant rice-pounder thing that I forget the name of, examples of traditional clothing (in addition to that worn by the participants).  Pencas, as you may recall from a previous post, are woven palm fronds, and the rice, oranges, etc, are displays of the local produce- it’s a celebration of farm life, so they celebrate the trappings of campesino-hood.
At my main Primaria’s day, 5 or 6 of the “neighborhoods” built ranchos in which members of these communities sold traditional foods and more produce.  Every festival is an opportunity for the local families, and the schools, to get some fundraising in, so there are refreshments always available- generally for under 2$, for a decent amount of food and beverage.


This being Panama, the vast majority of events require a Reina, the Queen, and her court, which consists of a princess or two, and the Damas- Primera Dama, Segunda, and sometimes Tercera Dama, all with their caballeros (gentleman, or knight).

Bewildered little flower girls

        The actual showcase is distinctly Panamanian- firstly, each presentation started at least 30 minutes late, and then began with the entrance of the previous year’s Reina,  and the current year's court.  These lovely ladies are chosen by votes and/or fundraisers at their schools, and are sporting the full pollera with heads full of trembling beaded tembleques (tembleque loosely translating to “tremblers”).  To the sounds of traditional music, either live or canned, the Royal Court enters, and after an array of ladies and flower girls who are generally 5 or 6 years old and completely clueless about their directive, the new Reina enters.  Each of court lady entrances involves the girl coming in with a caballero or 2, making a couple loops around the performance area, some dance steps and forms, and going to a seat behind the performance area.  

hint: La Reina's the one on the right

The new Queen enters, naturally with the fanciest pollera and glitzy-est tembleques, and the previous Queen coronates her and makes her exit.
Once the Court is in position, the Conjuntos de Baile Folclorico from the host school as well as 5 or 6 guest groups each perform some traditional dances.  The performances at each of the Días was nearly identical, with most of the events featuring the same groups performing the same dances.  Downside: I admit, even for me, the novelty wore off after seeing the same dances over and over, particularly as some of the groups repeated dances of another group in the same Día, but Upside: seeing the same dances repeatedly, and by different groups, gave me the opportunity to gradually make sense of the announcer’s words, and put names to the dances, and get an idea of the general choreography of the dances.

One of the common dances was the “Fogon Caliente,” or “Hot Wood-burning-Stove”, which involved in parts, the boys holding the backs of the girls’ skirts and waving their hats, and at other parts, the boys putting their heads to the girls’ stomachs to be covered by skirts (or on the girls’ shoulders, as the little kids danced it, to the high amusement of the audience).

Another repeated on was a rice harvesting dance which used props- the girls carried wooden trays with some rice, and the boys used fake machetes...and one of the elements of the dance involved the boys leading(?) their partners around in the circle with their machetes at their ladies’ necks.
These performances generally lasted several hours, though the audiences weren’t shy about moving around during the pieces.




Here are some of my favorite pictures:

This one is perhaps my favorite, particularly photographically; also this pollera had the best movement ;-)

Palo de Mayo (Maypole)

fun fact: Maypole (palo de Mayo) has a tune strongly reminiscent of “Limbo”, and is regarded as traditional panamanian culture; technically this was at a Tourism Fair at my Secondary school, but had a lot of things in common with the Días Campesinos.  Main difference was that many of the classes were assigned a province and decorated their classrooms in accord with the characteristics of their province.  But they still had the queen, court, and interminable set of perfomances, including a couple little dramas, and the produce and food vendors.

These guys are apparently tree spirits, despite looking like some sort of deer-god thing. 

Las 4 Negritas, the 4 little black girls.  2nd graders in blackface singing about how their father would beat them for not knowing how to do certain household tasks...

The Queen and I

            Coming soon, hopefully in the next couple days, while they’re still fresh in my mind: Separation of Santa Rita from Cabuya (independence from the next town over), and the 4 days of parades for Día de Independencia de Colombia!

            In the meantime, may as well finish October.  Except the Separation from Cabuya is the 23 of October...but it’s a parade, and sort of an independence day,  so it can stay postponed.  So, Halloween! Now, if you know me at all, you are probably aware that I’m rather fond of this holiday, and take great delight in getting costumed up.  The prevailing Panamanian belief is that Halloween is all about Satanism, and they’re actually seriously scared of the idea.  I’ve heard several sincere accounts of witch encounters, and multiple instances of duendes (mischievous imp/brownie/elf/dwarf critter)  I’ve had the pleasure of explaining to a few of my neighbors the true importance of Halloween, that being dressing up as something you’re not, and having fun, and eating candy.  And, although the Panamanians aren’t keen on Satanism, their beliefs haven’t rubbed off too much on the ex-pat community, and so the American owners of a restaurant in Veraguas had a Halloween party with free pizza for anyone who came in costume; this drew about 20 PCVs to congregate in the town of Santa Fe, which is gorgeous, by the way, up towards the mountains.  So, if you haven’t seen it on facebook, here’s my scrounged pirate costume:

Ok, one more, to finish this post- Día de los Disfuntos, or Day of the Deceased.  Completely unrelated to Halloween, this is observed on Nov 2 by going to the cemetery and putting new silk, and some families real, flowers on the graves of the relatives interred there.  I went to the cemetery in Cabuya with my familia panamaña when they went to do their duty by the maternal ancestors.  The graveyard is on a beautiful hilltop with a 360 view of mountains and the ocean.  And there were brindis of hot chocolate, coffee, and arroz con pollo (chicken and rice).  Brindi means free food :-)

View Southish (and slightly eastish) towards the Pacific

View north/northeastish towards the mountains

And view South, but now to the right (westish) at a storm in between the cemetery and the ocean !

P.S. There were also brindis at all of the Días del Campesino, in case you were wondering; generally for Invitados, but by dint of being the only Norteamericana, or Peace Corps Volunteer, or somesuch excuse, I generally count, 'cuz I'm a VIP ;-)