la noche de los rabanos

A black Cristo, in a little shrine in el Pochote. Pretty cool.
One of the displays.
First Prize...
A very unusual creation, I think referring to some incident in local history.
More people than I have ever seen at one time in one place...


I am trying to upload some images from el Noche de los Rabanos (Dec 23), a very grand fiesta here but seem to be having some internet difficulties. Not unusual. Will try again.

I have never in my life been around so many people in one location. Definitely more in one spot than in tuscarora on its fattest days. Eva, Preeti y yo went to el zocalo to see what the deal was, and discovered a crowd like that at Central Park on New Year's Eve. Packed.

So the big deal was a festival of campesinos, who grow giant radishes especially for this night. They carve the radishes into incredible scenes, whole villages, people, whatever they can think of. The first prie was awarded , incredibly, right in front of my nose, to a representation of an artesanal village complete with weavers and potters with their wares. All radishes. I understand that there is a grand monetary prize that is highly coveted, but don't know if there is an admission fee. The radish creations are all displayed on tables set up during the day (while the radish villages are being created, on location). I went back the day after, yesterday, and nothing is left. Not a twig. There is no way anyone would be able to tell that 12 hours earlier you couldn't move for the people, that there were food vendors everywhere, firecrackers, a giant tower of spinning fireworks and a huge display of fireworks being shot in the air, balloons everywhere, music... nothing. Amazing. The WORK the people of this country go to to have a little fun blows my mind.

And then last night, Dec 24, was the Big Family Dinner. We all went to the house of my duena's son-in-law's mother, and enjoyed ourselves immensely. It was a normal huge family noisy dinner complete with conversation about politics, the best restaurants and whose girl children are the pickiest dressers. Pretty fun. And the food went on forever. I highly recommend tasting Oaxacanian food, the flavors are as complex as Indian and Thai flavors. There were 3 or 4 meat dishes, 2 fish dishes, a pretty incredible rice dish and an amazing variety of desserts. There is a very large percentage of diabetics in this country...

Still not able to upload pix so will try again later.