Festival in the town

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15 augustus is the festival in Juigalpa when Maria’s Ascension is celebrated. This is originally a religious festival. As a preparation early masses are traditionally held every day in the week leading up to the big day. On festival day there is a big procession.

As with many other festivals more mundane activities have increasingly surrounded the festival. Yesterday, Saturday, was the kick-off with the ‘carnaval’: a procession of decorated floats and dancing groups representing different parts of Nicaragua. Today, Sunday, was ‘El Hipico’, a procession of horses in which people from wide and far participate. People are beautifully dressed up, some of them riding elegant horses that were trained to perform small dance steps. Often the horses usually still serve as draught-horses, especially those from outside Juigalpa from the interior. We had a look at the procession with Jonathan who behaved like a real Nicaraguan (see pictures).Jonathan buys hat

Tomorrow the big fair will start featuring a hand- driven merry-go-round! And around the central park in Juigalpa there is so much more street trade than usual that it’s impossible for anyone not to note that something is going on in town. This week, from Friday to Tuesday, there is also a huge market on the edge of the centre with evening performances of well-known groups and music bands and the election of the queens of the market: Miss Chiquetita (about 6 years old) and Miss Chontaleña, the Miss of the province.

You cannot have a town festival without bulls in the arena, so in the last three days of the festival men on horses or footmen with bandanas one at a time show their courage by challenging an aroused bull, to see who is strongest. It seems as if this spectacle only gets more interesting when some creatures, man or beast, get hurt in the process…

Officially only the 15th is a public holiday. But in the course of the next week the intensity of work decreases and the anticipation of the celebrations rises. Viva the Virgen of the Ascension! Viva!