Dodging Earthbound Fireballs...Just Another Friday Night in Oaxaca

Friday night, Alex and I wandered down to the main square (el Zocalo) to do some people watching. It was so packed that we couldn't find anywhere to sit so we just milled about. Just north of the Zocalo there's a plaza that faces one the big churches in Oaxaca. We heard some firecrackers popping near the church entrance so we wandered over to check it out. And what did we see? A fireworks show so spectacularly dangerous that it wouldn't even happen at Burning Man. For starters, there were two guys wearing hats (I guess that's what you'd call them) with effigies on the top. The effigies were rigged with fireworks, and I'm not just talking cute little sparklers. I'm talking about real, smoking, crackling, booming fireworks. Not only that but the effigy hats were animated so that the fireworks would spin in circles, showering the nearest onlookers with sparks and ashes. There was a mariachi band playing and the "hat" wearers would run/dance around in a circle until their fireworks were spent, then reload and shower the crowd again.

Next, there was a large tower covered with different animated fireworks that a very brave/stupid dude would light by climbing a ladder in the center of tower. There were spinning hearts and rotating diamonds, a giant spinning flower, and fireworks that looked like the church. The animations were lit progressively upward. After all of the lower fireworks were spent, a device on the top of the tower fell open into a flat purple star and started spinning around as a cross was lit beneath it. Then a crown of white light appeared in the middle of the star. The crown started spinning faster and faster until it shot up into the air 30 feet and dissolved into the night.

For the grand finale, they lit a string of fireworks from the top of the church. Instead of exploding skyward, the sparks cascaded down in a waterfall of white light, illuminating the front of the old stone church. It was a beautiful sight. The Oaxacans sure know how to party.