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Una Kermesse Tradicional en Quincy Florida
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A Traditional Kermesse (Festival) in Quincy Florida By David Peñaflor: Mexican Folklorist On the occasion of the anniversary celebrations of the CL of the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, a traditional festival à la "Kermesse" took place under the direction of Maestra Maria Pouncey at the PAEC Migrant Education Program. This type of fellowship takes place among the residents of the community and has the main feature of being an interactive party, including organized games of skill, theater games, and art performances. In Mexico, the carnival was fashionable in the early twentieth century and are still celebrated made in many places. One of the essential games at this event is the "Lottery Singing" where the director has to "sing" or recite aloud a saying or phrase that figuratively hides the contents of each of the cards in the lottery for people to guess what the figure is; for example: "The blanket of the poor ... the Sun" and thus the first to fill his card with 24 figures screams... "Lottery" and wins a prize. Another game is the "Raffle" where each player chooses a number before the wheel starts spinning while hoping the weel stops in the chosen number to win a prize. Another attraction of the traditional Kermesse is the theatrical play "Civil Registry" with its Judge and Police, the policemen are responsible for "arresting" and leading the engaged couples or spouses to appear before the judge for a wedding. The parody of the wedding is done with the reading of the document: "Marriage Act" which is written in a mocking and satirical way, exaggerating the obligations of married life. At the Quincy Kermesse there were also raffles for gifts and cash, the Mexican dishes were presented by Ms. Rosie Cabrera. The artistic part of the event was in charge of the musical ensemble of Migrant Education Program, the dance group "A Little Bit of Mexico," also sung and played nursery rhymes as the "sea snake" and "odd and even" where adults and children participated and encouraging family togetherness. To conclude the event, I sang (says the author) the ballad of my own "Battle of Cinco de Mayo, 1862" where I describe in verse the most important passages of the famous battle. In later days and for the same reason, we organized a multicultural festival in James A. Shanks Middle School, where for the first time the dance group with Hispanic students of that school had their first performance; such activity was organized by Maestra Marixa Soto and directed by the author of this article. |