Festivals

Festivals

I am skipping over some things to try to be a little current! I will go back and get caught up later. Probably.
Every town in Mexico has a festival. Most of them are in conjunction with the church in town. Bucerias has their Fiestas Patronales for the 9 days ending on January 24th. The church here is called Nuestra Senora de la Pax, Our Lady of Peace. The festival mainly takes place in the evenings. We went several times, sometimes getting there as late as 10:30 p.m. and always leaving before the party died down. A person who lives in the vicinity of the square told us that one night the band played until 2, and on the last night, the band played until 7 the next morning!
There were lots of stands: games, bars, candy, junk sales and of course food. There were rides for the kids and many skyrockets. In the evening there was entertainment on the square. There were folkloric dancers, flamenco dancers, a beauty pageant and more. After the scheduled entertainment, the band started. It was a local band called Perla Negra and they play banda music.
We bought hamburgers from the vendors, and tacos and filled churros. About 11 in the evening was the fireworks bull. I’m sure there is a name for it, but what it consists of is a framework shaped like a bull, covered with fireworks. A person “wears” the bull frame and runs around the crowd with fireworks going off. Pretty dramatic, for sure!
The last day of the festival, fishing boats from nearby towns came to the beach to be blessed. There were many, many people watching. While waiting for the boats to come, there was a charro parade. They were accompanied by a band. As they marched in they played “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” The charros (cowboys) had their horses dancing to the music. It was great!
The last night, there were so many people in the square it was incredible. About 11 p.m., there was a fireworks tower. Called a Castillo, there were lots of spinning fireworks and flying sparks! After the fireworks, there were 2 bands playing at the same time. They were maybe 50 feet apart and were playing different songs, of course at high volume. The whole festival was very fun.