!Viva la Feista!

This Labor Day weekend is the start of the week-long fiesta in Santa Fe that occurs during the first week of September each year. The Fiesta commemorates the Spanish reconquering of Santa Fe (from the Indians) in 1692, led by Don Diego De Vargas. It is both a religious celebration and a party, with a strong mix of Native and Catholic elements. This weekend, the first events included a huge Arts and Crafts fair on the Plaza, entertainment last night in the Capital park (mostly mariachi and dancing), and the annual Night Light Parade. It was lots of fun to wander among the many vendors at the Arts and Crafts fair--it's really amazing to see the unique things people make--both useful and not. I curbed my tendency to buy things and just had a strawberry lemonade agua fresca as I strolled around. I then wandered over to the park to listen to a few hours of very varied mariachi--some great, some not. Santa Fe's first all-girl mariachi band was fabulous; the self-promoting "Jenna" not so much. There was also traditional dancing on the center stage, and the little girls all running around in their fancy dresses, petticoats and cowboy boots were absolutely adorable. When darkness fell completely, around 8:30, the parade began and I walked closer to home to watch it, as the procession went right past my street. As the parade began--floats and marching bands all illuminated with Christmas lights and other glow in the dark paraphanelia--the heavens opened and it started absolutely pouring, thundering and lightning. I watched the parade, got soaked, and felt very bad about all the costumes and floats getting ruined; such is life.

Today, I decided to go to the Indian Arts and Crafts festival at the Santo Domingo Pueblo, about 20 miles south of Santa Fe. It was neat to go and explore the Pueblo and also to visit the literally hundreds of tents filled with jewelry, pottery, and weavings. It was even harder to contain myself (and my wallet) at this fair as the array of turquoise and other shell and stone jewelry was stunning. Though I wanted a $200 necklace, I settled on a very cool $20 bracelet and a lunch of roasted green chile covered Indian Fry Bread. The bread is sort of like fried dough, but better. I brought my camera, but no pictures were allowed in the pueblo. This was too bad as I would have loved to take some shots of the traditional Indian dances that occured throughout the morning. It was incredibly hot at the pueblo, so after a few hours, I headed for home and for a swim workout at the Fort Marcy pool. The altitude sickness is better thanks to copious amounts of water and hefty doses of Ginkgo Biloba.

Fiesta continues all week, the highlight being the burning of Will Shuster's Zozobra (Old Man Gloom) at Ft. Marcy Park on Thursday night. All year long, people collect their bad thoughts, old speeding tickets, divorce papers, etc. and put them into the huge Zozobra to be burned. This ritual, done since the 1930s, is supposed to rid Santa Fe of gloom and bad thoughts. Apparently it's quite the sight, with more than 30,000 watching. I've already got my ticket, and the park is right behind my casita, so I am looking forward to it. There's also lots of entertainment on the plaza next weekend. Maybe I'll have some new friends by that point, as at least one other scholar is coming this week :-).

I am enjoying it here--it's very cool to see so many new and different traditions (new and different to me anyways). Enjoy the rest of your weekends. I cannot believe it's the end of summer.

Pics 1-4: Images from the start of the fiesta on the Plaza yesterday.
Pic 5: The little Casita I live in....