July 20 of every year is Día de Lempira in Honduras. We celebrated this special day on Friday at school. Lempira was a leader of the Lenca people who in 1537 united over 200 villages of different tribes to fight against the Spanish conquistadors. The Honduran money is named after him and he is certainly a national hero.
The day started out with a little program that included a beauty pagent to vote for the India Bonita (the Pretty Indian). All the Indias Bonitas here collected money from their friends and family and the person with the most money will wear her costume in the Independence Day parade in September. Alejandra, the girl with the coconuts, won.
Many of the kids dressed up in costumes for the occasion. They either dressed like ¨indians,¨cowboys, or a Spanish-influenced costume. Here´s the kindergarten class looking cute.
After the program, we all went to buy traditional food in the chumpas, the huts made of tree branches and palm leaves. Every school in Honduras makes these chumpas to celebrate Día de Lempira every year. A few teachers and students spent two days making them to get ready for the event.
There was a wide variety of food for purchase made by the parents of the students. Here´s Kelly with arroz con leche (rice, milk, sugar and cinnamon) and a tamale (a piece of chicken with other pot-pie stuffings encased in mashed corn).
Dayana and Victoria are eating baleadas, my favorite Honduran food. It's a flour tortilla with blended beans with a cheese and a sour cream-like dairy product.
Juliana (orange shirt) and Cheily (red hair tie) are eating Catrachos, which is also slang for Honduran (like gringo is to North American). Catrachos the food are corn tortillas fried crispy with blended beans and the sour cream on top. Lissy (the shortest girl) is drinking natural juice from a plastic bag and Edwin is eating fried corn dough.
A mom and Teacher Wendy are selling taquitos, or little tacos of chicken paste rolled up and fried crispy in a corn tortilla. They'll put a red sauce and some white cheese on top to serve them.
All in all, it was a pretty fun day celebrating Lempira and his efforts for the native people of Honduras.
1 comment:
These kids are adorable.And the foodlooks pretty good! I'm not too sure I'd have voted for the little girl in the coconuts tho--she seems a little young for them!!My vote goes to the girl next to her. We love the pics of the kids-can't wait to meet them when we come!
Post a Comment