100 degrees on Christmas.. And after seeing the extremely cold weather back home in Iowa, I am the farthest from complaining. I think I lucked out escaping this year's deathly winter in the States.
On the whole, I found Christmas to be a little bit different here in Paraguay. First, Christmas takes place during the period of summer vacation, meaning that people are more free to prepare for their festivities. While not everyone has summer vacation. For many, it is common to have the last part of December off work and the month of January - making it a much more relaxed period of the year. Second, Christmas is less commercialized here. Gifts aren't such a huge focus, but rather the time spent with family. From what I understand families exchange small gifts with each other in the evening and Papa Noel generally brings the kids something sensible Christmas morning. I can say that I felt a different kind of "Christmas Spirit" in the air here; one focused less on buying and more on spending the holiday with loved ones.
To begin, families eat dinner late together Christmas Eve. At midnight everyone gives two kisses on the cheek (just the same as a greeting here in Paraguay) and says Merry Christmas! Neighbors come by to say Merry Christmas and throughout Christmas day you can expect to give kisses on the cheek and say "Felicidades" to just about everyone. I spent my Christmas with my family, we sat and talked together and did some dancing in the street. However, after midnight some teens choose to go out with their friends.
My beautiful niece!!
Sopa Paraguaya - The only Paraguayan cuisine that I don't like. It's corn based and as I am not a big fan of corn.. (horrible Iowan, I know) it doesn't match my gusto. But I've heard it's better than cornbread.
Just like in the states, about a month or so before the big holiday, people begin to decorate the outside of their homes with small familiar blinking lights and colorfully dressed Christmas trees. A few days before Christmas I helped my family out to do some decorating at home..
New Years is celebrated similarly. I did a little bit of traveling on News Years eve. I went to my grandmother's house in Humiata (less than an hour away on dusty roads by bus) to spend the night. I hadn't been there since August when I arrived so it was interesting to return. We spent the day drinking terere and conversing. After the siesta we all took the time to make ourselves presentable for the dinner meal. For dinner we had chicken, pork, and cow meat along with salad and cake for dessert. We finished eating fairly early so we talked at the table until Midnight. When the clock struck twelve, we gave our "Happy New Year's" and shared a bottle of champagne.
Christmas and New Year's were fun and great cultural experiences. However, anyone who is a from Pilar knows that January 2nd is when the real party (the chaos) starts... The Hawaiana. I'm not sure for how many years it's been going on, but AFS started this party awhile back. It began as a party for the foreign exchange students here in Paraguay to get to know each other. The families of the foreign exchange students would gather on the small "beach" here in Pilar to dance and share cultural customs. Today, it's a party of about 20,000 people who travel to party in Pilar. People begin dancing in the evening and continue dancing until well after the sunrise. It's pretty cool that AFS gets to benefit from this huge party in Pilar. They are able to use the money to give scholarships for people here in Paraguay to study abroad.
Unfortunately, this year there was pouring rain almost the entire time. But this didn't stop my friends and me from dancing! The Hawiana is a memory I won't forget.
This past month in January, I got to celebrate my birthday - Paraguayan style! I celebrated with my cousin who has the same birthday as me. We had a barbecue and many people came. We did just a little bit of a dancing. It was great to share time with my loved ones here.
barbecue! & birthday boy and birthday girl.
my dear family.
my sister/favorite dancing partner :)
Oh yeah.. and my friends came to my house at midnight to dump flour over my head and sing Happy Birthday to me in Spanish, Guarani, and English. I think dumping flour on the heads of your friends on your birthday is the best love you can give them. I had seen this happen to many of classmates in school this year and.. well.. they got me too!
Life is good.
I hope you're wrapped in a blanket wherever you are.
Hugs from Paraguay. xoxox
