Carnival Confetti, Magic & Fun on its way down Porfirio Díaz street. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

Héctor Ruiz Mejía (Jocotepec).- The first edition of the carnival «Confetti, Magic and Fun» was celebrated in San Juan Cosalá, in the municipality of Jocotepec.

In spite of some technical failures, floats that could not be presented and more than half an hour of delay, the parade in which more than 200 people participated, among them around 150 children, started at around 5:00 in the afternoon from Cardenal Sur Street. 

The main float of the parade ornamented as a peacock, from which confetti was flying. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

The contingent went through the main streets of the town to culminate in the main square on Porfirio Diaz. The parade offered about half an hour of laughter, colors and music, but, above all, a sense of calm.

According to its organizers, this new version of the Shrove Tuesday parade was created with the intention of allowing people to have a good time with their families, without the fear of being covered with flour, as there are always disagreements among the inhabitants about this custom.

One of the parade floats

«I thought this was a very good idea, the truth is that I didn’t like to attend the carnival because everyone gets covered with flour, but I think this one with confetti is a very good idea», commented Carmen López, who together with her small children enjoyed the confetti, the laughter and the traditional masked sacaya characters.

However, there were those who attended the event, who argued that the fun of the carnival is to get covered with flour, «that’s what’s cool, that’s why you come to throw flour,» said Ramón.

One of the soccer-themed contingents. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

At almost the same time as the confetti parade, there was another flour parade, which registered the participation of approximately 400 people.

With a non-family atmosphere at the other parade, the fierce flour battle painted almost everyone white, including pedestrians, motorists and bicyclists traveling through the delegation.

«They floured everyone, I was just passing by in my truck and they threw all the flour at me, look how they left me,» said a passerby who was trying to get to the municipal seat, but did not count that he would arrive «looking like Gasparin (Casper the Ghost)».  

A man in costume, sitting in the cab of the pickup truck that closed the parade caravan. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

At the end of the confetti event, its organizers said that despite the short time they had to carry out the event, it was a success; and they hope that next year it will be held again, this time with more preparation and more participants.

Translated by Kerry Watson