Independence!
September 15 is celebrated in all 5 Central American countries as their Independence Day, i.e. the day when the Confederation of Central American states broke apart and formed their own sovereign nations with basically the same flag design and same love of rice and beans. I did something really dumb and bought triple A batteries for my camera instead of double A, meaning I have no pictures from the Sept. 15 independence day celebrations in San José. I´ll try to describe it as best I can in a few fun anecdotes:
1. Every year Honduras comes out with a phrase to embody the Sept.15 celebration for that year. This year´s phrase was "Formando Ciudadanos(as) para Engrandecer Honduras," which is TOTALLY translated as "Forming Citizens to Embiggen Honduras." I LOVE IT!!
2. I was late for the parade. Granted I was waiting on one of the municipality employees, but still, an American arriving late for a Honduran parade, now THAT´S irony for you.
3. Nelson the town crazy (crazy because he´s epileptic....?!) decided to make his way through the crowd and up to the head of the parade, trying to grab the Honduran flag from the mayor and making quite a fuss. Ahh the patriotic spirit was alive and well in the heart of Nelson the town crazy guy!
4. The parade concluded in the parque central, where the civic acts began including poetry readings, dramas, and folkloric dances-- the dance troupe from the school was by far the worst, no offense but it was really awful. The kids were yelling at each other, hats and scarves were flying off and getting trampled on, they were running into each other and even the parents were laughing at them. It was a scene, man.
5. The final act was a dramatization of the death of Francisco Morazán, the Simón Bolívar of Central America who fought for a united Central America and was shot in the end. The high schoolers rode into the park on horses, the soldiers loyal to Morazán stabbed themselves in the heart, the son was crying, and in the end the kid portraying Morazán actually had a packet of fake blood that he squirted on himself when facing the firing squad. Everyone was riveted, and they had a good laugh. It was actually the best part of Independence day, in my opinion. Hurray for Honduran theater!
Overall it was shorter, more organized and generally better than last year. Sad to think it´ll be my last independence day in San José... perhaps next year they´ll "embiggen" the events even more :)
1. Every year Honduras comes out with a phrase to embody the Sept.15 celebration for that year. This year´s phrase was "Formando Ciudadanos(as) para Engrandecer Honduras," which is TOTALLY translated as "Forming Citizens to Embiggen Honduras." I LOVE IT!!
2. I was late for the parade. Granted I was waiting on one of the municipality employees, but still, an American arriving late for a Honduran parade, now THAT´S irony for you.
3. Nelson the town crazy (crazy because he´s epileptic....?!) decided to make his way through the crowd and up to the head of the parade, trying to grab the Honduran flag from the mayor and making quite a fuss. Ahh the patriotic spirit was alive and well in the heart of Nelson the town crazy guy!
4. The parade concluded in the parque central, where the civic acts began including poetry readings, dramas, and folkloric dances-- the dance troupe from the school was by far the worst, no offense but it was really awful. The kids were yelling at each other, hats and scarves were flying off and getting trampled on, they were running into each other and even the parents were laughing at them. It was a scene, man.
5. The final act was a dramatization of the death of Francisco Morazán, the Simón Bolívar of Central America who fought for a united Central America and was shot in the end. The high schoolers rode into the park on horses, the soldiers loyal to Morazán stabbed themselves in the heart, the son was crying, and in the end the kid portraying Morazán actually had a packet of fake blood that he squirted on himself when facing the firing squad. Everyone was riveted, and they had a good laugh. It was actually the best part of Independence day, in my opinion. Hurray for Honduran theater!
Overall it was shorter, more organized and generally better than last year. Sad to think it´ll be my last independence day in San José... perhaps next year they´ll "embiggen" the events even more :)
posted by Maureen at 1:07 PM
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