Wallace's in Latin America: Day of Antigua's Patron Saint: Santiago (St. James)

My posts have slowed down a bit because most of our adventures have become "went to school, studied, repeat next day". This is not an exciting blog. So finally we had something exciting happen that allows us to post a blog worth reading. But first the boring part - school is still going great. Nicole has a new teacher in the days and so does Josiah (one returned to university and the other was reserved by a student who arrived recently). We will post pictures of new teachers soon. We also decided to extend our 4 hours of Spanish class to 6 hours of Spanish class, so after lunch each day we return to the garden to meet with our teachers. Nicole has her teacher from the first week in the afternoons, Tyler has a new teacher, and both kids are sharing Emma's day teacher. Classes are going great and our Spanish is improving each day!

For the more exciting part, Tuesday was the day to honor the patron saint of Antigua, St. James (Santiago). There were many events to honor their saint, starting with a parade in the morning where many of the schools participated with floats, costumes, and dance! Pictures below!

Start of the parade!

Flags and Fireman leading the parade

Another crest... not sure what for...

A float of the famous Arc of Antigua

Notice those flowers are little kids!

Not what you think, these date back to 1500 and represent cleansing of sins

This school focuses on caring for and respecting the elderly of the community

Many of the students dressed in formal attire

... very formal

Others reenacted legends of Guatemala and the Mayans

Another float of the arc

More formal attire

They really like to do floats of the arc

These kids were adorable!

Each school selected a princess (and often a prince as well) to represent the school

This school did a dance in honor of the elderly of Antigua

I captured part of the dance - very fun!

Did I mention the floats of the arc?

Later that afternoon, the city had a procession where a huge image of Saint James was carried around the town. This procession was much smaller than what they do in holy week, only one image and only about 4 hours (rather than the dozens that are carried for over 12 hours). These heavy pieces are carried on the shoulders of community members and are changed every block for the weight of the float. This float was carried by 30 students of various schools