Festivals are very common in Colombian culture. During the time of a town’s festival, the entire town focuses on preparations. In November, my town had its yearly Festival de la Molienda Pareña. Literally, that translates to "the Festival for the Mill of San José de Pare", with "San José de Pare" referring to this town. Really, however, it was a celebration of one of the town’s main crops, panela, which is similar to brown sugar.
The festival was held over several days. Throughout the festival, people were encouraged to wear their ponchos and all events were centered around panela. For example, there were festival games where people had to carry panela, which referred to different steps of processing panela. There were also several competitions, such as dance, singing and tejo, a popular Colombian game that is similar to corn-hole, but which involves explosives. More strange was a competition for the sexiest mule, where townspeople put makeup and clothes on mules. There were also concerts given by local artists each night.
Students were an integral part of the festival. In the weeks leading up to the festival, each class planned and practiced a dance. The dances had something to do with the town’s culture.
