Yes, I mean balls of fire…literally. Fellow PCV Adrianne, friend Stephanie, and I were dodging cloth balls dipped in gasoline and thrown at us in the streets on Wednesday night. Talk about cultural exchange…
The Nejapa Fireball Festival or Bolas de Fuego takes place once a year on August 31 during the towns Fiestas Patronales, or one-week celebration of the town´s patron saint (if you remember, my town had some in January and I wrote about it…every town has the week-long celebration, just at different times a year celebrating different Saints). This particular firefight tradition is unique to the town of Nejapa. The firefight is celebrated on the same day as a volcanic eruption that occurred in 1922. It was said to look as if the exploding volcano was a fight between the devil and their patron Saint Jerome. Nowadays, it has been diminished to a celebration of young men from the town dressing up in demon costumes and throwing flaming rags at one another. The on looking crowd stands an unreasonably close distance to the fight and dodges flaming rags along with the participants. More than one person in the crowd caught fire during the 2-hour display (personally, I got hit in the face with a rag, but luckily it was not on fire). A few participants were treated for severe burns, but mostly it was just like good old-fashioned dodgeball, with the ante upped just a tad…
Okay, so I know how this sounds…ridiculous. But honestly, the specifically Salvadoran culture and traditions have been lost for the most part due to the declining indigenous population, and going to this uniquely Salvadoran (and just generally crazy) tradition was definitely one of the cooler things I have done in the last year and a half. It may have been slightly dangerous, but as my mother and I discussed last night, it is more or less like our 4th of July celebration (tell me you have never seen two idiots shooting Roman Candles at each other, or someone nearly catch their roof on fire!). Maybe not the safest way to celebrate, but hey, they are not judging us for wasting money on silly little canisters of powder that explode in a half-second celebration. So despite the prejudices you might feel, keep an open mind. I am testament to this event´s amazingness…
Check out Adrianne´s video of the fight! The blue devil horns to the left are on my head. The shouts of “Oh my god!” are half mine and half Adrianne´s….
And if you are interested, YouTube.com has some more crazy videos with people on fire and people screaming…
Pre-festival photos...We dressed up, Adrianne is clearly on the devil side and I am on the heaven side, and Forest is on his own creepy side...smiley faces....
and creepy faces...
We are all gas-masked upped and ready to hit the road, and dodge some flames
Quick! A photo-op before you throw that!
The street lined with flaming rags
The boys (Duffy and Forest) who came with us were bad asses and decided to participate in the firefight...out hotel room reeked of gasoline in the morning
Thanks for the photos Ade!
