Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

The gang and I attended the Feast of St.Micheal yesterday afternoon and it was amazing. These celebrations are held all over the city, the one we attended was in a park up the street from Arena. The Feast of St.Michael celebrates the archangel, St. Michael who defeated the devil. The people in DR who worship witchcraft also celebrate the day. Everyone must wear red to scare off the devil and other spirits. While this event was colorful and exciting, the flip side was much more interesting.

There were over 600 people jammed into that park and at least 50% were gay or on the DL. These boys were fine as shit. I'm talking about big muscular boys in t-shirts or no shirts and tight-tight jeans. They were drinking and cruising the entire park. When you heard the drums beating and the trumpets blow, their were usually 3 or 4 skinny gays boys with their fag hags shaking and shimmying everything they have. This party was like JD's on a Saturday night(before Rouge opened). You could barely make through the crowd. You were pressed up against a hot sweaty man, whose tight and ripped body was clinging to you as you moved by, whew!

This was really cool because the crowd was also filled with mothers, children, families and church ladies. This was the strangest mix of people I have ever seen in the DR. Our crew drank, danced and mingled with the crowd. I even lit up my first Dominican cigar! Everybody knew somebody at this party. The celebration started Thursday and continued into Friday night. We left around 8 to head home, when we spotted another party on Calle Canela, up the street from Casa New Yorker. We stopped in of course. We saw some of the same people from the other party. This celebration however, was in someone's home. They put up a tent and invited everyone to come in and celebrate, of course we did. They also had a live band under a tent that played bachatta and other beats that kept the party lively and moving.

This was one of the best celebrations I have ever been to, because it was so surreal to see people dance as they were possessed by the devil. To actually see the spirit enter and leave someone's body was mind blowing. I was really overjoyed to see people celebrate their beliefs and of course, see those hot Dominican papis.