Pig Bladders, Patron Saints and Celebration

"Barva is a small city and canton in Costa Rica, located 3 km north of Heredia.  It was named in honor of Barvak, an indigenous chief who ruled the area before the arrival of the Spanish.  The patron saint of the town is Saint Bartholomew.  A large church, Iglesia de San Bartolome de Barva, was established between 1568 and 1575 is in Barva.  Every year on August 24, the people of the town have a celebration dedicated to the saint, and the highlight of the celebration is the unique masquerade, where people go out wearing masks and hit others with cow and pig bladders."  From Wikipedia.  Yes you read that correctly! Cow and pig bladders! And our family got to experience the celebration! On Friday August 24 our family ventured to the Central Park of Barva with one of my classmates from school. The Central Park was full of activity. Vendors had set up tents around the park square selling food, clothes, jewelry and various other small trinkets. There were carnival style games, cotton candy and kiddy carnival rides. The church building was dressed with beautiful fabric drapes of red and orange. Floral arrangements lined the alter of the church and huge bouquets of tropical flowers dawned the massive church pillars. Outside overlooking the whole festive event was the patron saint himself, Saint Bartholomew. 

Sounds like a typical way to celebrate a saint, right? Well, this is where it gets interesting. On this day people young and old alike,  dress up in masks. Not your typical plastic mask with an elastic strap, (although we did see a few of those on little kids) but I mean a full, oversized, artistically painted mask that is worn like a helmet. The style of masks varied from clowns to demons. And those people wearing the masks carried with them cow or pig bladders, blown up like balloons, filled with water and tied with a string. Then the masked people proceeded to walk through the crowd hitting bystanders with the bladders. The crowd was consistently running from one end of the park to the other just to watch someone get pounded with a bladder. 
It was the most insane celebration I have ever seen! The kids clung closely to us, afraid they would get hit with one of the bladders. At one point in time Jyles literally tried to climb up me like a cat climbs a scratching post. I know, some of you are probably wondering why we would even expose our kids to such a tradition. The truth is I had no idea how scary the masks were going to be or how terrifying the thought of being hit with a pig bladder was! But life is full of the unknown and fear of the unknown should never hold us captive. 

Even scripture speaks to this. Isaiah 41:10 & 13 says "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.........For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." In the Leathermon household we don't want to be ruled by fear. We want to taste, see and experience all that the Lord has prepared for us. And it just so happened on August 24th the Lord provided us with the opportunity to taste, see and experience a unique tradition in Barva, Costa Rica.