Christmas Eve...A Silent Night...Not here!

Sing with me - “Silent Night. Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright”

We had been told that on Christmas Eve at midnight there will be a ton of fireworks. We had no idea how true this would be. At midnight on Christmas Eve, we had just put our kids to bed and were trying to get them to sleep. Throughout the evening there had been a considerable amount of fireworks and we were already impressed. But we had no idea of what was to come.

At midnight Antigua exploded like we had not seen before. The sound of firecrackers was constant and loud for about 20-30 minutes. It sounded like they we being blown all around our house. In addition, families were launching displays into the sky. There were very impressive displays all over the city. Ben and Rick wished they could have been on the side of a mountain where they could view all of Antigua. We thought…how can we describe this? Possibly this is what is like if you are a kernel of corn waiting to be popped inside a microwave popcorn bag. Or maybe it is more similar to being in cabin with a tin roof in a hail storm with dynamite being blasted in all directions every other second or so. The noise was constant, loud and continued until about 12:30 a.m. at which point it “began” to lessen.

You may wonder…how did the kids go to sleep with all that noise? Well Ben, who didn’t get a nap in the afternoon, basically collapsed and once he is asleep, nothing can wake him up. Elena, on the other hand, slept quite well in the afternoon, and as a result had trouble getting to sleep. Elena has always hated loud noise. As a baby, she would cry at the sound of any loud noise. Even now she runs from vacuums [place your own comment here]. And at this moment, Elena was quite startled…okay…we all were with the exception of Ben who was fast asleep! Becky went in to be with Elena and Rick got to observe the celebration from our second story bedroom window.

By 2 a.m. the noise had lessened to a typical Guatemalan night (which does usually include some fireworks). We expect most Guatemalans were now inside their homes eating a meal or opening presents (this is typical). We slept well and woke up to a sleepy Antigua…actually quiet. We thought all was done…but then at 12 noon on Christmas Day, the fireworks began again. It wasn’t as strong the night before, but it made quite a contrast to sleepy quiet Antigua, just a few minutes earlier.

For the pyro’s who read this: Fireworks are quite cheap here. We are told that there are laws about fireworks. We bought a pretty nice amount of sparklers, firecrackers, volcanoes, and what we call snappers (throw them on the ground and they pop). In total, we spent about $5 on quite a bit. New Years is coming, maybe we will spend $10!

We considered this a cultural exercise. You know, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. No animals were hurt that we are aware of and Ben still has 4 fingers……………and a thumb on each hand.