We all know how the stores in the United States thrive on holidays to sell us more things and just can’t wait to start advertising the next holiday before the upcoming one has even finished? Well here in Bolivia I was reminded of that with the transition between Christmas and Carnaval, which is the time leading up to Lent. This year’s Carnaval festivities were different from the past two years because I spent them more locally with smaller groups of people in work and neighborhood settings.
At the Social Center, on the Friday before Ash Wednesday there was a group effort to make enough food for 40 people to having overflowing lunch bowls, blow up lots of balloons, decorate with streamers and confetti etc. After several hours of preparation, a group of workers and volunteers of the Social Center got together for a group-singing of “coplas” which are like poems put to music, with repeated verses, and they are often silly or make fun of people, sometimes flirtatious, and also are ways to comment on social injustices in a more indirect way. When marginalized people don’t normally have an opportunity to express the struggles they faced, coplas were acceptable ways to do that. The idea is mainly to focus on strengthening relationships within the community.
Traditionally, the Anata is an Andean celebration that occurs at the time of the rainy season and the first harvests, which also coincides with Carnaval. It is a celebration of Thanksgiving for the harvest that the community has been given and asking for blessing that the next year be a prosperous one for the community or social group with whom you celebrate Carnaval.
We stood and sang many coplas about our group of people involved in the Social Center and of course there was dancing involved and a lot of laughter. Once we finished singing each person took a small cup of rubbing alcohol and a handful of a very colorful mixture of confetti, pieces of fruit and little sugar candies. The meaning behind the different parts of this confetti mixture have to do with the friendship and the joy it brings us, that our relationships be filled with sweetness and not bitterness, and all the colors representing the joys of life. With our alcohol and confetti in hand we went around the center sprinkling each and asking God for blessings in all areas of our work and for all the people who come through the social center.
Not very long after, the water fights began. It mostly happens between males and females but eventually turns into everyone soaking everyone. We did pause to eat lunch but not long after the mission to completely soak every person took off yet again. It is a big part of the tradition here in Carnaval and can be a lot of fun if you are prepared and willing to access that playful inner child.
Another Carnaval celebration I was able to participate in was in a neighborhood community and involved a small parade of the kids from the neighborhood dressed up in costumes. I was taken by some of the costumes I saw including several smurfs and characters from the movie Avatar.
The kids really loved dressing up, dancing around, and processing for all to see. There was also a time afterwards for the adults to sing and dance, which no one is ever too old for.
While I did not participate in a any big parades, I got a more personal community experience of Carnaval this year, and I enjoyed it very much. Of course there are positive and negative sides to Carnaval, but I try to not lose sight of the original intentions of the celebrations and gatherings—thankfulness, re-establishing right relationships with each other and with the land, building community, and preparing for a time of renovation during Lent.
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5 Things I’m thankful for today: meeting fascinating people who humbly share their incredible stories with me; our beautiful aphid-free broccoli in the garden, thanks to a homemade chamomile spray; watching little kids dance; my dad, since today is Father’s Day here in Bolivia; and the examples of solidarity and radical love set by people like Luis Espinal and Oscar Romero, who were both assassinated this week 32 years ago.
