Three Kings Day – ParrandaMusic; Ambience: ParrandaIf you happen to be in Puerto Rico this week, don’t be surprised if you see revelers traveling from house to house, as part of a kind of roving musical ambush. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. It’s called Parranda the ritual leading up to the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated as Three King’s Day in Puerto Rico. Pulse of the Planet listener Ramon Accosta returns each year from Austin, Texas to take part in Parrandas with his family and former neighbors. Acosta: Parranda is Christmas caroling Puerto Rican style. We get our typical instruments, which include guitars and maracas and other kinds of percussion instruments. We go singing to people’s houses. We might start as late as 11 o’clock at night. We’ll go from house to house, and we’ll end up waking, up people. The kind of music we have is very lively. It’s traditional Puerto Rican music. Neighbors prepare for the arrival of the Parranda by stocking up on essentials, but it’s difficult to predict which night, or exactly when the traveling party might arrive. Acosta: What we do is when we arrive at people’s houses we, we sing outside their house, we wake them up – they open their house to us and let us come in. And then they give us food and drink, and have kind of a party at their house, with music and dancing – stay about an hour, and then they’ll join us and go to the next house, and that will go on all night ’til early in the morning. Sometimes in those early morning hours people will feed us breakfast.We’ll hear more about Three King’s Day in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.
Three Kings Day - Parranda
"It's Christmas caroling - Puerto Rican Style!" In the days leading up to the Feast of Epiphany, the sounds of Parrandas are heard throughout the island.
Air Date:01/10/2002
Scientist:
Transcript:
Three Kings Day - ParrandaMusic; Ambience: ParrandaIf you happen to be in Puerto Rico this week, don't be surprised if you see revelers traveling from house to house, as part of a kind of roving musical ambush. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. It's called Parranda the ritual leading up to the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated as Three King's Day in Puerto Rico. Pulse of the Planet listener Ramon Accosta returns each year from Austin, Texas to take part in Parrandas with his family and former neighbors. Acosta: Parranda is Christmas caroling Puerto Rican style. We get our typical instruments, which include guitars and maracas and other kinds of percussion instruments. We go singing to people's houses. We might start as late as 11 o'clock at night. We'll go from house to house, and we'll end up waking, up people. The kind of music we have is very lively. It's traditional Puerto Rican music. Neighbors prepare for the arrival of the Parranda by stocking up on essentials, but it's difficult to predict which night, or exactly when the traveling party might arrive. Acosta: What we do is when we arrive at people's houses we, we sing outside their house, we wake them up - they open their house to us and let us come in. And then they give us food and drink, and have kind of a party at their house, with music and dancing - stay about an hour, and then they'll join us and go to the next house, and that will go on all night 'til early in the morning. Sometimes in those early morning hours people will feed us breakfast.We'll hear more about Three King's Day in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.