The arrival of fireworks (La Obra) at La Parroquia, the Parish church; February 14, 1977.
The festival of 1945: The powder for rockets has been purchased by the families of Ojo de Agua[an adjacent Tarascan community], and after this early breakfast it is carried to the town hall [more recently, to the church], each band with its followers making many detours through the streets. Here the powder, in the presence of all, is divided, and half sent with one band to the priest, for Church uses, and half remaining in the town hall, for civil use. During the day it will be made into the rockets which are indispensable in any fiesta.
The fireworks maker, a Tarascan from San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, engaged by the inhabitants of Ichupio for $350, has arrived with his assistants, and spends the day assembling the castillo ("castle"), a 14-m. pole with a bewildering array of pinwheels, firecrackers, and other pyrotechnic tricks. About 6 o'clock in the evening it is raised, with the aid of many spectators, in the center of the atrium, ready for the grand finale of the fiesta. Presently the church bells ring and the crowd assembles, and by 9 o'clock all is deemed ready. The fuse is lighted, flame shoots up to the wheels, igniting bombs on the way, and for perhaps 10 minutes there is a display to satisfy the most demanding critic. Shouts of delight mingle with screams of surprise and pain when powder shoots out and burns spectators standing too near (1948).
CONTINUE >
|
