Amor & Esperanza: Celebrating Carnaval

This past Tuesday (February 12th) I had the chance to celebrate Carnaval or what we know as Carnival. This tradition which originates in Brazil is also celebrated here in Guatemala, but on a lesser scale. The children dress up in costumes similar to how we celebrate Halloween in the United States. There are parades and special treats. The kids dance and celebrate and have contests for the best dancer and the best costume. Since many of the families cannot afford to rent a costume they get very creative making costumes out of recycled materials or out of things they find at pacas- the Guatemalan equivalent of a thrift store. One woman told me her daughter dressed up like a tourist sporting a backpack, shorts, and agua pura- a bottle of purified water, which made me laugh. Those gringos sure love their agua pura!

The best part of Carnaval in my opinion is the tradition of cracking cascarones (painted eggs filled with confetti) on people's heads. During the weeks leading up to Carnaval colored eggs are sold in the market, but kids also make them at school and at home. On Monday I visited one of Mayan Families' Preschools in San Antonio Palapo and the kids were filling painted eggs with confetti. I learned a new word this week- pica-pica/confetti.

We had a group visiting from Canada that has given a lot of support to an elementary school in the rural village of Tierra Linda so I traveled with them on Tuesday to visit the school and to see the Carnaval festivities. It was a pretty fun time minus the little girl that smashed an egg on my head when we were leaving. I didn't mind the confetti in my hair, but apparently no one taught her the art of cracking the egg in your hand then throwing it on the person's head. For more info about Carnaval see this blog post by a Guatemalan woman living in the US.

Below are some photos from the celebration.