For North Americans and Europeans who are used to freezing temperatures and snow at Christmas time, spending the holiday season in temperate Medellín might seem a bit surreal. Lying just north of the Equator, there isn’t much seasonal change in the City of Eternal Spring, where temperatures hover around 22°C year-round.
Instead of a White Christmas, Colombians
treat themselves to a “light Christmas.”
Preparations for the alumbrados (light displays) in the cities begin as early as two months before the big day.
Some of the most intricate displays contain several million lights, and each one
revolves around a specific theme. There
is an informal competition amongst the biggest cities in Colombia for the best alumbrados, and year after year Medellín
is considered the uncontested winner.
Medellín’s most famous light display is located
in the park next to the Medellín River, which city officials begin turning into
a pedestrian promenade as early as October.
The river lights adopt a different theme each year, and this year’s
display featured the region’s local flora and fauna. Strings of lights crossed the river in the
shapes of plants and flowers, and illuminated animals and insects ran along the
promenade, where visitors strolled past vendors selling grilled meat and beer.
It isn’t common for two of Globalteer'sVolunteer Colombia Kids projects to gather together for an outing because
they are pretty far away from each other, but the alumbrados are a special occasion.
On a recent late Friday afternoon, the staff, volunteers and children
from one project in the hillside descended into the heart of the city and met
up with everyone from the inner-city project in Medellín’s central BarefootPark. As soon as they arrived the kids, numbering well over a hundred, took off their shoes as fast
as possible so that they could splash about in the water and run through the
gravel playground, while waiting for the sun to set.
As the sky began to change color the group
began a short walk over to the river, with the adults and older kids looking
after the little ones. After twenty
minutes walking along the darkening promenade, they arrived at the traditional
starting point, which features intricate fountains and random jets of water
shooting out of grates that are illuminated by multicolored lights. At around 6:00pm, the holiday lights along
the river were turned on, to the delight of the children, while the adult
chaperones began the difficult task of keeping up with the kids who started
running every which way. Soon the
entire length of the promenade was filled with exuberant children climbing on
top of animals, insects and trees made of lights. Several hours later they had exhausted
themselves, and the two projects parted ways until their next big outing.
