Honduras Day 2

Our Doll Exploding

Año Viejo Doll

Day 2

 
New Year’s Eve.  Año Viejo.  I got up and walked down to the market area and I noticed everyone was in a rush.  I asked one of the stall managers and he told me that everyone was having a huge celebration tonight for New Year’s.  He was extremely nice and he introduced me to his friend Juan, and he took me down to his community.  He let me help with preparing the meal consisting of mainly tamales, fried bananas, beans, and rice.  He said he has a surprise for me so I followed him.  I noticed everyone had fireworks so I assumed they were doing fireworks for New Years and I was partially correct.  Hondurans put a slight spin on it and stuff all their fireworks in a lifesize doll.  It looked like an old man and Juan explained that the teens who created him made him an old man because it represented the year about to end.  It also represents all the bad memories of the year and they were going to blow them up.  Around 10 PM, we began to eat.  One of the Hondurans said a prayer in Spanish before we ate, then we began.  The food was extremely tasty.  The food smelled of allspice and chili powder.  It had a wonderful aroma.  After eating for about an hour, we began to gather everyone outside.  Finally it was 11:58.  The community surprised me and gave me the honor of lighting the doll on fire.  I was so thankful for the honor and was shocked they would give such a high honor to someone they just met.  When 12 struck, I lit it and sprinted back to the crowd because there were probably as many fireworks in that doll as there is in a whole fireworks stand.  The sounds and lights were amazing.  Ours went for about two minutes of constant light and sounds.  We also heard other communities’ doll being blown up.  After ours was done, I went back to my hotel and went to sleep.