Barva, Heredia
March 27th-30th, 2008
by Marcelo Arroyo J.
El Turno:
Turnos have their roots in the colonial era when Catholics , were organized to collect money, food and other goods in order to help the development of the community and its residents. The concept of time is linked directly to the economic needs and the feelings of solidarity of the people.
The name turno is used because it means "turns", very appropriate as these events are planned so that there are never two of the events taking place at the same time in the same province. Communities "take turns" celebrating their festivities.
The importance of turnos is also that for many years, this celebration was a place of gathering for the community, where many couples met and formed their new family. The event also, thanks to the hard work of people , raised money to build schools, churches, community halls, aqueducts, fix the streets, put up street lights, build bridges, etc.
Food is an essential element of the turnos. Today, you can buy chuzos (tasty meat skewers), elotes tiernos (seasoned corn on the cobb), chorreadas (corn pancakes), gallos (small servings of meat and picadillos served on a corn tortilla) arroz con pollo (a chicken and rice dish), churros (sugar covered fried bread), manzanas acarmeladas (carmel apples), frescos de frutas (fresh fruit drinks), and more. Another element that characterizes turnos are the games played here. At the fair we saw in Barva, Bingo, Roulette, Aim (throwing small wood pieces), ring toss, and other games were available.
La Mascarada:
The masquerade, consists of costumed, masked characters, who animate crowds at the turnos and other popular festivals in Costa Rica. Its origin is also colonial, and there are records that show that the residents from Cartago (former capital) were the ones who made the first masks. From there, many families began moving to other parts of the country, bringing the tradition with them.
The masquerade is in charge of animating the crowd , as clowns dance to the music of the cimarrona, while running around scaring girls from the town. In Barva, the frightening is done by chasing people to hit with a pig bladder.
There can be many different characters in a masquerade, but some of the most important are, the Gigante and Giganta (male and female giants), la Muerte (death), el Diablo (the devil), and a series of masks representing a series of fable characters taken from popular Costa Rican tales including: la Cegua (a beautiful woman said to be found in the paths and streets of Costa Rican countryside than when picked up by men, her face is converted into a horses skull) el Cadejos (a man who changes into a dog), Brujas(witches), Fantasmas (ghosts) , and so on.
October, 31st was declared as the "National Masquerade Day" in Costa Rica, with the aim of restoring the values of yesteryear.
The Cimarrona:
It is a musical group made up of musicians from the community. Usually the group plays wind and percussion instruments. The rhythm that the Cimarrona usually plays is the Parrandera, although they also play, waltzes, corridos, boleros, cumbias and danzones.
It is said that cimarronas were originally composed of a towns philharmonic. Since these musicians were paid very little, there were allowed to use the philharmonic's instruments to play in informal groups for extra money. So, originally many cimarronas played military marches and civil music. Now, there are many musicians who specialize in composing music specifically for cimaronas.
Another feature of the cimarrona is that the musician plays to ear, ie that often must improvise melodies that asks people.
References: Sandy (2004). Para siempre tradiciones ticas. Volume 1. San José, Costa Rica: Ediciones culturales A la Tica, S.A.
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