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Bezoekers Maria
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www.camperleven.nl/maria
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SWEET FIFTEEN
A BIRTH DAY, COLOMBIAN GIRLS SHOULD NOT FORGET
Among the oldest traditions of our culture is the one that gives the turning of a girl into a young woman the biggest importance.
Ever since the little girl acquires conscience of her womanhood, she dreams with the moment of the celebration of her fifteen birthday. It is the great moment of her life. Becoming a "SEÑORITA" is a great big deal. Something that means and deserves EVERYTHING.
Preparations start a year before and all stratums of society do whatever is there to guarantee the success of the celebration.
For you to be able to understand the grandiosity of this feast, I would have to introduce you to the different social classes we manage, according with the income of each Colombian family. Colombia is a country of very rich and very poor people holding in the middle of these two extremes the thickness of a middle class, divided itself in high medium, medium and low medium class stratum. Each of these classes has its own identification: a stratum numbered from 1 to 6, being 6 the richest. Each stratum celebrates not only this but all the traditions of our culture in a similar way with an only difference in taste and expenses depending on the "pocket" of each one.
The girl again, depending of her social class will have a big party. The richest ones choose a big saloon of the most important social club in town, the not so rich will rent a special saloon for events and the rest of the classes will have to empty the living and dinning rooms of their homes that normally are on the same space. The very very poor will choose the street of the front of their homes. Nobody wants to let this special day without a celebration. And then the night of the party comes.
Always depending of the social class comes the dressing of the beautiful "QUINCEAÑERA". It used to be pink for everybody until some twenty years ago when the bright colors of the tropic invaded the minds of the teen-agers….nowadays only the very poor insist in those fairy tales, long pink gowns with lots of glittering from head to toes……The modern ones even wear black!!!!!!
The "paraphernalia" of flowers, pink ribbons, pink balloons, pictures, videos invade the "grand saloon"…..a place for the orchestra, if there is money to pay for one, or a rented D.J. who will bring along the music, equipment and everything needed for the success of the family reunion if the money is not that easy to get and even the little tape recorder or the old record player can be enough for the matter.
The dancing starts when the birthday girl comes out of somewhere where she had been hiding for at least an hour. Before she enters the "grand saloon", fourteen of her very best girlfriends, all in blue or any other chosen color (different from pink) will march past the guests with their correspondent "chamberlain"…(it is what the partner boys are called) and will form surrounding the red carpet (this is an exaggeration. There is not red carpet…!) through where the birthday girl will come to the ball. Once she and her father come down, the escorts will follow her and the ceremony starts with the dancing of one of the Strauss waltzes……One by one, the chamberlains will dance with the birthday girl and after this first dance, there comes the ceremony of toasting and blowing of the candles on the top of a beautiful cake decorated for the occasion. Then the real dance starts and the glamour of the waltzes change for the live sound of the orchestra or the music and the party starts….salsa, cumbias, merengues, rock, etc……
The girl receives lots of presents, dances until the first lights of the next day and perhaps falls in love for the first time in her life……
How can a girl ever forget a day like this?
By Magnolia Franco. Wereldkinderen Contact person in Cali
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