La Feria Nacional-Independence Day

Ba-bababa-Ba-Ba-Boom!!

I woke up to the sounds of drums starting and the sounds of marching, sirens and people.

Drew, get up! We’re late, the parades are starting and we promised to be there…......we head into town and we show up to a town completely full of people. The streets where the parade will go is completely full on both sides, and the marching has started.

The cool thing about Independence Day here is that the kids are still in school. Each school participates, for the most part, with some kind of marching event. This is especially true for the elementary schools. This includes matching costumes, a flag guard, pom pom girls, people dressed in traditional costumes or representing different Honduran symbols, and much more. For the high schools, it is more of the same, but also including girls with batons and a marching band. Unlike the states, a marching band here includes drums, bass drum, cymbals and bell sets, there is not money for other types of instruments. But that does not stop the kids from pounding away great drum beats, swaying and dancing to the same beat as they march uniformly down the road. That’s the cool thing, they dance here as they march.

The conductor was dancing more than the band members........

So in most municipalities (counties) in the central town there are the parades all morning, with people cheering and out with their families. As we’ve gotten to know more people we know more cute kids that are involved, so of course we have to take pictures of them, here they are looking way too cool in their uniforms.

I gotta say......I have a weakness for cute kids in uniforms......

Dillan, our work partner’s kid, and Antonio, our neighbor who loves to play with Lizzie

In the afternoon, there was live music in the park, people out eating, chatting, and spending time with their families. I thought, okay, that is probably it. But no, there was another round of marching and music that night! Much shorter, just one high school marched, but they put 100% into it and it was pretty fun, with the park all lit up and the drums pounding.

Overall, I was impressed. It was a fun event, and I felt the sense of patriotism, good cheer, and cultural spirit in my town. It was very different than our Independence Day, no fireworks for sure, but they had us beat in their drum beats. So, feliz dia de independencia, 15 de Septiembre, Honduras!