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“Traigo una trulla para que te levantes“! Just like in the old Dominican days, as part of the festivities which started on December 8th with a lovely Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony to inaugurate the Holiday Season in Casa de Campo – a traditional Dominican style “parranda navideña” was celebrated – featuring jolly members of the community who enjoyed a spectacular “Teatro Rodante Dominicano” (Dominican Travelling Theatre) and later, a fantastic Christmas parade which ended in the main Chavon Plaza with traditional Christmas merengues!
Although many feared the rain could have spoiled the plans for a fun evening, at 6pm (sharp), the Teatro Rodante was a huge success! At 6pm, the show entertained the public (composed mainly by little ones) with funny acts and bright colored costumes as part of a brief Christmas show held in an improvised scenario just outside the main gates of the Altos de Chavon Regional Archaeological Musuem.
BUT the fun did not end here!! Once the show was over, those in attendance (and those who were not) quickly tuned into what later would turn out to be a wonderful Christmas celebration in Altos de Chavon and the rest of Casa de Campo.
Departing from “La Fuente de los Peces” fountain at 7pm, the “Aguinaldo” (Christmas parade) made its way through Casa de Campo with numerous jolly members of the community who gradually joined the celebration, attracted by Dominican musicians who played the traditional rythms of Perico Ripiao in one of the Christmas golf carts, and of course by Santa Claus who didn’t miss out on the fun adventure!
Leading the parade who carried huge speakers with a wide variety of the most classic Christmas merengues by Conjunto Quisqueya group, famous Dominican singer Milly Quezada and the Toros Band, among many others. The festive spirit was contagious as a number of Casa de Campo villa owners and residents received the crowd in their homes, dancing along to great music and serving picaderas , ponche and drinks!
Enjoying the “Parranda Navideña” at Wendy Velázquez’s villa!
The Christmas parade made quite an extensive journey, visiting many villas in Vivero, Los Altos, Los Tamarindos, and many other neighbourhoods, as well as the Casa de Campo hotel, were we were received by Daniel Hernández, General Manager at the Casa de Campo hotel, and many smiling staff members – a wonderful surprise to the many hotel guests who also joined the party dancing to contagious merengue rythms!
For those of you who thought that the celebration was over – this was practically a warm up to what was about to start. With a generous number of fans driven from many places in Casa to Altos de Chavon by the fun Aguinaldo, among them, students of the Altos de Chavon School of Art and Design, the Domincian musicians leaded the crowd to an official celebration of the Parranda Navideña at the Altos de Chavon Plaza, inviting everybody to dance to the tropical rythms and special songs for the Holidays, as well as enjoying traditional ginger tea – pretty helpful when the Christmas breeze is sometimes unbearable for those of us who are used to the tropical weather!
If you missed this fun celebration, don’t worry! Below is a selection of photos taken during the celebration in different parts of Casa de Campo:
