Primera Comunión

This past Sunday we were invited to attend the First Communion (a special Catholic occasion) of two children in Antigua. While studying in Antigua last year, we lived with a host family: Rony, Tere, Almicar, María Teresa, and Andrés. We have continued to visit with them on many occasions throughout our time in Guatemala, including Semana Santa in 2007 and 2008. Having grown close with all the family members, we were invited to share in the celebration of la Primera Comunión of Almicar and María Teresa. (Andrés is still too young and has to wait for two more years.)

The day began with a special mass in the Cathedral in Antigua at 8:00am. Having previously attended only a few masses in Guatemala, we were delightfully impressed with the service and the priest. At the beginning of the service all the children receiving their first communion walk into the church and gather together. And before taking communion each of their parents brought special offerings that the priest blessed. These ranged from fruit platters to bread to fancy wine glasses. The priest also spoke very sweetly and directly to the children about this special occasion. They already took 6 moths of courses in preparation, but his main message was basically that when you have Jesus Christ in your heart it is always a party. Siempre es una fiesta con Jesucristo. We loved that!


After the mass we took advantage of some photo opps with the family all dressed up. Then, we were off to have breakfast at Café Condesa with the family and a few friends. This was a nice time to talk with other people staying with the host family and to catch up with Rony, Tere, and the kids.


In the afternoon, we were invited to a lunch and reception at a very pretty garden location. Tere and others had worked all night before making lunch for around 50 people, even making something special for us vegetarians. We certainly enjoyed the salad, bread, rice, and a special mushroom sauce mixture. They also made about 30 gallons of horchata (an almond/ milk drink), storing the extra it in a 50 gallon garbage can!


After lunch a very cool clown provided entertainment to even more invited guests. We were kind of raising our eyebrows in question when he showed up, but we were very impressed by his non-creepiness and ability to involve all the crowd. He performed for at least an hour, involving parents and kids in the activities. Toby was even enlisted to participate in one of the games! Unfortunately, when we wanted to transition from clown to piñatas a rainstorm dumped on all of us for 30 minutes. This rushed the candy grabbing and encouraged the cake cutting so people could sit in the covered areas eating.

Eventually we had to leave the celebrations when they continued into the evening. But, we are very grateful to have been invited to this special occasion. We hope the children continue to be strong and committed in their faith into the future, and maybe we'll even be back in two years for Andres' shining moment. ;o)