New Year's in Léon

For the New Year´s holiday, we were in the historic town of Léon in Central America´s most volcanic region. Léon was the capital of Nicaragua for over two centuries until Managua took over in 1887 and today is the country´s second largest city. New Year´s Eve seems to be celebrated quite similarly to Nicaraguan Christmas. We began the evening by visiting Leon´s cathedaral, the largest in Central America, constructed between the mid 1700s and mid 1800s. Inside this massive structure, many people were attending mass while other people treated the cathedral like an extension of the central square on which it´s located, wheeling their bikes around, checking out the nativity scene, eating, drinking, and chatting. The park itself was filled with music, food and craft vendors, and lines of people waiting to have their photos taken in front of screens with cartoon Christmas scenes like Santa and sleigh in the snow. We walked through nearby residential streets to watch families gathering in homes, sitting in chairs on the sidewalks, setting out stuffed dummies (kind of like scarecrows seated in chairs)and putting up pinatas. The closer it got to the midnight hour, the emptier the streets became as street stalls and bars closed and people went to their homes to celebrate and eat dinner with their families. At midnight, deafening amounts of firecrackers exploded and the stuffed men were set aflame to signify the passing of the year 2005.

The next day, we found the streets quiet and most places closed until we walked back to the cathedral at 3 o´clock where inside people were reciting the rosary and outside a crowd was gathering. At around 4 PM, a procession began. At the front of the procession was what seemed like a small high school marching band followed by a pick-up truck with huge speakers in the truck bed to amplify the words of the priest sitting in the front cab ("Viva Mary, queen of peace! Viva Christ the king! Viva Catholic Nicaragua! Applause! Applause!). Next were altar boys, priests, brothers & other official looking folk from the church surrounding a floral-decorated float(pulled by a jeep) where the bishop sat holding the holy eucharist (12 years of Catholic school & Catherine´s not sure that´s what it´s properly called). Behind them followed a jazzy horn band that would break into song in the middle of the priest´s orations, and finally droves of parishoners. This procession continued through Leon´s cobbled streets where families had decorated their windows and doorways with ribbons, balloons, flowers, and religious scenes, particularly statues of Mary. On the more than 2-hour route, many were praying but many others were also chatting with neighbors and stopping to buy snacks from street vendors that were following alongside selling cotton candy and other treats. The procession ended in the central park where a mass was held for another hour and a half. We could only make it through another 45 minutes or so. This event takes place every New Year´s Day.

New Year's Day Procession


Along the route of the procession