Zamarramala and the Feast of Santa Agueda

On Sunday, we headed to the town nearby called Zamarramala. They have a celebration for the feast day of St. Agatha. This feast day celebrates the life of a girl who was killed and tortured for her beliefs- From this the town has a sort of “celebration of women” week. On Friday, the men hand over a staff sort of things, that give women the right to be in control over the men for the weekend and the license to make fun of them as well. The rest of the weekend is a celebration of women and the important role they play in life. Sunday is their main celebration, which started with a procession to the church. All of these women were decorated in traditional costumes and doing a special dance to the music being played by a small band. They went to the church and got the statue of St Agatha, which they carried on their shoulders. Then they went outside of the town and did a couple dances and returned back to the church for mass, which was SO crowded. The choir that I just joined sang a couple songs at mass…and I was shocked. They were soooo bad. They sounded just awful. Think of all the off-pitch, I’m going to sing loud church ladies and men you can think of and stick them in the same choir and there you go. Haha. It was slightly comical. After mass the women in charge of the festival gave a speech and then they had the burning of the “Pelele” which was a man-doll. Then they danced around it and that was the official end of the festival-though then everyone eats sausage and drinks fizzy wine til it turns dark. It started raining though, so we headed back home, cause we were getting cold. The festival was definitely an experience, though it was a slight exaggeration of the sentiments they had, it was interesting to witness their culture and festival!