Happy Birthday!

Often the celebration begins very early (when it is still dark outside) by shooting off bombas. Bombas are essentially fireworks. I guess they figure that everyone can join in the fun that way:) Judging from the frequency of the bombas it must be someone's birthday in Pana every other day. Well, I would rather sleep in and wish them a happy birthday when I saw them. I will say that the longer I was there, the less I was able to acknowledge the birthday so early in the morning. (I was able to sleep through most of the bombas).

Another interesting thing is the way they sing the happy birthday song. It is a mix between English and Spanish. They do not sing Feliz cumpleanos. They sing Happy Day Birth a ti. We were never able to understand the rest of the song exactly. The general gist is something about wanting a piece of cake. They then clap and count for the number of years the person is turning.

While every birthday is acknowledged (often with bombas), most do not have fiestas. For years that the family deems significant, they will have a fiesta. During our time their, we saw three fiestas. They were all very special as we knew how much of a sacrifice it was for the parents to give their children a wonderful celebration with others. The first one was a quincinera. We only saw the preparations throughout the day for this one. The 15th birthday is similar the 16th birthday in the States. It is the age signifying the girl is now a young woman. The party is the equivalent to a wedding without the groom. We lived in a house that was surrounded by homes built with cement cender blocks, pieces of tin, tin roof, dirt floor, most had one light that was infrequently used. The living room often did not have a roof. For the quincinera, the family made streamers and hung them from the center of their house/livingroom. They had a magnificent, huge cake on teirs. They even had fake green paper grass spread neatly on the dirt. They went all out for this very special occassion.

Karla, the daughter of the host family, turn 16 while we were there. When given the opportunity to have a quincinera last year, she chose not to. This year she regretted it. She had a few friends from school over for games, movie, and food this year. Once again, the family all pitched in to make the house as festive as possible with streamers and balloons. The games were similar to silly games we play in the states. The food was tamales and chocolate cake. It was once again simple yet very special.

One of the other neighbors was turning 5 years old. They had strung balloons to the edges of the tin roofs surrounding their "living room." They had a pinata of a mexican cartoon character strung up in the center. The guests sat on the perimeter of the living room watching the clown (payaso). They had much fun hitting and breaking the pinata. Unfortuately, this party came to an abrupt end secondary to unexpected thunderstorm. Nonetheless, a very festive time for all.

Each party was simple, festive, and laden with love.