Guatemala: Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe altar snapshots

By Xeni Jardin at 4:15 am Monday, Dec 14

(Video link.) I'm in Guatemala for a while, and was out on the streets of la Antigua during the big nighttime celebrations for La Virgen de Guadalupe Day this weekend. Above and after the jump, more photos (shot on iPhone).

How do they celebrate this beloved Catholic/indigenous hybrid deity? A mezcla of circus, ceremony, and "get your picture taken with Santa" kiddie portrait dioramas (featuring altars for la Virgen instead of that fat, bearded gringo). What better way to honor a New World goddess than with food, flowers, chickens, ponies, crazy-dancing — and lots of homemade explosives.

Here's a related post by Guatemalan blogger Kara Andrade about observations of the same festival in the town of Chiquimula (more about the crazy bombas here). And Antigua-based photog Rudy Girón has a photo-essay here.