It's A Parade!

Tonight was interesting. For the last two weeks a drum corps has been practicing at the school down the street. Over and over and over again. And they're not all that great, well, were not all that great. Practicing up to six hours in one day helps you get good, apparently.

I walked down into town for supper and got trapped by a parade. It's almost Honduran Independence day, and apparently they start celebrating early. The crowd was loud and excited. All the children and some of the adults had different colored lanterns lit by candles. These clever little contraptions had cellophane tacked on wooden frames to create lamps that look like porch lights, but a myriad of different colors. They were quite beautiful and someone even had one that was made to look like a star.

In the middle of the crowd was the drum corps. When I walked up someone was yelling something that sounded inspriational, but I wasn't listening all that closely. After a few minutes of this, the drum corps started up. They sounded great! Way better than anything I had heard so far and I had had no choice in listening to much of their practicing. They even had a variety of steps to go along with the music. The piece ended and during the applause, someone started lighting off fireworks in the middle of the crowd! They shot up over our heads, above the buildings to explode high in the sky with a double bang. Everyone cheered. And then took a step back as more were set off.

After the last flare had dusted the sky with its sparks, the drum leader started blowing his whistle. The drums started a new tune and the flag bearers started pushing their way through the crowd. The street wasn't wide enough for a full crowd AND the marching group, so half the crowd was pushed in front of the parade and the rest trailed around behind. It was quite the sight!

I stayed where I was standing, off to the side until everyone had passed. Then I went and got myself baldeadas for supper. Yum! My only regret is that I did not have my camera along with me, so I don't have any pictures of the proceedings. You'll just have to take my word for it when I say that it was one of the happiest and liveliest crowds I have ever been a part of.