As promised, I am posting more about parranda. (I'm actually keeping a blogging promise!) To recap: during a parranda, a group of people, or parranderos, get together to surprise neighbors, friends, or family, generally late at night. The family then invites them to stay, eat, and celebrate. After an hour, or sometimes much more, everyone leaves with the neighbors in tow and goes to another house, the group growing larger as the night goes on, with lots of singing, eating, drinking, dancing, and celebrating. Often times, this continues until dawn!
Want to see what a parranda looks like? These clips on YouTube here, here, and here should give you an idea. Also, the following clip is a commercial with a humorous take on parranda. Even if you don't know Spanish, you get the picture! The song they're singing is a take on the universally-known chant that repeats the chorus "Si no me dan de beber, lloro!" ("If they don't give me anything to drink, I'll cry!").
 |
| A parranda with a friend and her enormous family in Naranjito, a town the mountainous center of the Island |
The songs sung during a parranda can vary a lot in terms of genre of music and theme of the song. Although I don't understand all of the complexities of parranda music, I'll give it a shot. Feel free to correct me! First, there are villancicos, which would be most similar to Christmas carols in English, and are slower and more traditional. Many of them come from Spain and are well-known through other Spanish-speaking countries. Aguinaldos are Puerto Rican Christmas songs, often accompanied by traditional Puerto Rican instruments such as the güiro and the cuatro (a type of guitar unique to PR), and other types of instruments depending on the group, such as guitars, tambourines, maracas, bongo drums, the congo drum, and potentially many others. Finally, trulla is another word for parranda. Some of the songs are very traditional and very Christmasy, while others have very little to do with the holidays. Food and drink is a large theme of the latter types of songs.
 |
| It wouldn't be a parranda without some fritura! |
Want to see what a parranda looks like? These clips on YouTube here, here, and here should give you an idea. Also, the following clip is a commercial with a humorous take on parranda. Even if you don't know Spanish, you get the picture! The song they're singing is a take on the universally-known chant that repeats the chorus "Si no me dan de beber, lloro!" ("If they don't give me anything to drink, I'll cry!").
I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season wherever you are! What are some unique holiday traditions where you are?
Nothing unique here, unless you're not American! I love your PR Christmas posts - so neat to see yet another perspective.
ReplyDeleteThe only cool thing we did was make hot buttered rum - complete with a pat of butter on top. It wasn't really my favorite drink, though.
Mmm hot buttered rum, sounds interesting!! It's definitely an interesting experience spending the holidays in PR!
DeleteThis is so cool! I can't think of anything super unique here that you wouldn't already know about... I love my family's American tradition of getting new pajamas on xmas eve. So comfy!
ReplyDeleteWe have the same tradition in my family too (the pjs!) haha funny!
DeleteHola! I came across your blog via Kaley's latest post. I'd never heard of the idea of parranda before--that's really cool! Is there any difference between the words trulla and parranda?
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!! Parrandas are lots of fun!! Trulla and parranda are synonyms. There is no real difference between them (that I'm aware of). I'll ask some friends to see if they have any other thoughts on it!
Delete