Medellin Festival of Lights

Cuenca has a few lights during Christmas on Plaza Otorongo and along the Rio Tomebamba. All those lights combined would not total as much as any single smaller park in Medellin — and every park of any size seems to be lit up!  We took a “Festival of Lights” tour tonight to see the lights of town.  The tour lasted about 4 hours, and we simply drove past most lit parks — just not enough time to see them all.  The cost of the tour was 45,000 pesos, or about $15 USD.

All main stops in Centro included Plaza Mayor, Avenida de Playa, and Envigado.  Here is a small selection of images from those areas tonight.

While Cuenca’s lights are identical each year (at least for the 3 years we have seen them), they change every year in Medellin.  They are put up by various groups, who compete for awards of the best designs.  And many of them go way overboard to do so.  Above are some of the general light displays covering many of the parks and streets.

One strip of Plaza Mayor had large (10 foot diameter) balls with lights inside that rotated colors.  Many people stood in front of them, while their friends took silhouette photos of them.  Of course we had to do it too! (lower left in red is Evelyn)

The Festival of Lights is really supposed to be the days in which families get together and light candles, and pray.  The massive glitter of the commercial lights overwhelms much of this tradition, just as it does in much of the States.  There were still a few families getting together and lighting their candles, and maintaining their calm traditions in the middle of such overdone commercial lighting.

And among all the glitter and party atmosphere, there are the people enjoying the show.  From infants in arms, to young children with their light sabers, to retired men sitting on the side playing chess, it seemed the entire town turned out for this party.

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