Today we visited the famous carneval of La Vega! We took a gua-gua from the capital to arrive at the hotwl with plenty of time to get stuck in in the carneval.
The whole town of La Vega turns into one giant carneval making machine for the whole month of February. Everyone in the town is part of a carneval group that spends the whole year preparing for the month of February, making their costumes and preparing for the four Sundays of Carneval. The atmosphere is one of a giant street party, every house and business converted to selldrinks and snacks to revelers and the streets full of vendors and people celebrating.
The Parade:
At it's heart, Carneval in La Vega is a big parade of all the costumed "diablos". There are hundreds of differents groups, made up of different ages and genders. Families participate together, from girls and boys as young as eight and nine all the way up to the upper generations.
The Costumes:
The costumes are all meticulously put together, obviously planned and worked on for the entire year. It's almost impossible to see that there are humans inside and they must be hot and very uncomfortable, because most participants remove their masks to be able to breathe. The costumes make noise, sparkle and are covered in about every colour you can think of. Some groups obviously prioritise creepiness, others try to be big and impressive, others focus on traditional sparkly devil forms. No matter what, participants are obviously intensely proud of their costumes and love to show them off and take pictures.
The Butt-Hitting:
It is utterly impossible to describe a day at Carneval in La Vega without recounting the constant state of fear in which you exist as practically every diablo (and quite a few other people as well) try to sneak up on you and hit you as hard on possible on the butt with their whips. Many diablos will simply tap you but the moment you turn you back, you'll be whipped as hard as possible with a long rope ended up a heavy weight. Speaking from personal experience, IT IS INCREDIBLY PAINFUL. Any and all walking has to be executed with an escort and with a constant eye on your behind. You truly spend the whole day afraid for the integrity of your behind!
The experience was a ton of fun and full of "alegria" as we participated in the peculiarly Dominican way of having fun (a holiday all about hitting people on the butt!).
