Burning of the Devil

Before christmas time, in early December, there was a celebration called Quema Del Diablo, or the burning of the devil. It is symbolic of spiritual cleansing and destruction of impurity and sin. I celebrated it at home with the kids, and each section made their representation of the devil out of straw and paper. When the sun went down that night, we set off firecrackers and burned the figures to the ground outside of the cafeteria.

Side note about celebrations here... the people here seem to LOVE firecrackers and fireworks and anything with fire in general. Even the youngest kids at the house can tell you how to light off a firecracker, and every festival I´ve attended thus far has included them. We have alot of fogatas, or bonfires... probably once a month. So I guess it only makes sense that we would burn satan to the ground with a BANG!