Quinceanera "Sweet 15"

I had a cultural experience last Saturday- my first Quniceanera!

Quinceanera is a girls 15th Birthday- a HUGE deal here in Mexico! I got there about 1 hour and 15 minutes late, hoping I didn't miss the meal. It turned out nothing had started yet- so I was just on time!

So it starts with music- some kind of Christian pop that celebrates the quinceanera and some girls comes down the aisle(it was outdoors and the aisle was only between 10 chairs in single file- 5 on each side of the aisle.) There were 10 girls likely ranging in age from 4-14. They come down the aisle slowly with flower petal baskets and bubbles. They are dressed in little ball dresses with their hair all done up nicely. Then the crowd stands and claps for the special 15 year old as she walks in between the other girls dressed in a wedding-type dress with a crown on her head as they toss flower petals and blow bubbles at her. She has a specially decorated chair at the front and then a preacher talks for about 30 minutes. He spoke about purity and following God through adolescence etc. Then the birthday girl gets a ring to signify a covenant between her and God to save herself for marriage. She also gets a new pink Bible and a pillow for kneeling on to pray.

Her mom gives her a baby doll that is her "last gift as a child" she then gives that doll away to one of the little girls who had the flower petals and bubbles to signify that she has left childhood and is entering into young adulthood. She was then presented, with her escort, to the world as "Senorita Ramirez"!

She leaves the same way she left to rose petals and bubbles and a song and then we ate Birria ( a pulled beef dish in a sauce-- very tasty!!)

Rights of passage are important, but I was left wondering (with no answer given...) why there isn't a similar celebration for guys- to recognize their "coming of age". I suppose historically it may have to do with when a girl is eligible to be married and for the guys- they are eligible to marry when they can prove to the girls parents that he is responsible enough to care for their daugter...

I watched the cake for a good part of the ceremony. It was a 3 story wedding type cake with 2 other cakes on the side. All the cakes were covered with some veil-like material, presumably to protect them from the hundreds of flies that were around. Eventually the weight of the flies pushed the veil close enough for them to get a taste (or it was close enough already...). And did they feast!! The sight was quite disgusting, and apparantly others shared my disgust as 3 women got up, dis-veiled the cake and shooed the flies away- for 1 hour (or more!!).

Unfortunatly, I needed to go to class before we got to the cake part, so I was left without having a chance to try it...