San Juan Town Celebration

December 26 and 27 were filled with acitivities in our small town as they celebrated their patron saint/namesake, San Juan del Obispo. On the 26th there was a huge dance competition that was held parade style. Each group followed a truck with a sound system, and each one stopped at every block to perform a routine. This lasted about 5 hours in order to cover the entire town. The first group was comprised of miscellaneous individuals and groups that hadn't choreographed an actual routine. There were some crazy costumes!

Parker and his host family wore parrot-heads made by his host father Luis who makes and sells pinatas on a regular basis.


Corey was in an Egyptian-themed group dressed as mummies and carrying a large snake.

Landon, Jim, and Rachel are all staying with various parts of the same extended family, and they dressed as pirates and had prepared several different dances. (Please excuse the combination of dust and sunlight on the pics.)


That night there was also a concert/dance with two live bands and a lot of booths set up in the plaza. There were an unbelievable number of fireworks throughout these few days.

The 26th was the social part of the celebration. Sunday the 27th was the religious part of the ceremony. There was a procession taking an image of the virgin Mary around town all day as well as at least one special mass. When the procession was passing through my neighborhood around 11 pm, it paused to watch a 20 minute play on the roof of my neighbor's house. I had a great view from our balcony, but it was hard to understand much. It was apparently a comedy as the crowd laughed a lot. There were well over a hundred people watching from the street.