Courtesy of: The Morning News
By: Rosalie Klein
ORANJESTAD — Veteran visitors to Aruba for New Year’s Eve know the island commemorates the annual changeover in a most spectacular fashion. The skies are alight and the air filled with the flash and thunder of thousands of fireworks, particularly just at midnight.
A very important part of this beloved tradition, however, is for businesses and household to mark the end of the year with the lighting of a pagara, a long string of firecrackers that could measure anywhere from 500 to five million and beyond. This is the rigueur particularly for companies upon finally closing their doors for business in the old year, which accounts for the two very noisy days often preceding the actual changeover from one to the next.
The noise is supposed to chase away any malicious spirits perhaps lingering about, and the smoke should waft through the premises to cleanse it of bad vibes, referred to as Fuku, (pronounced FOO-KOO…we kid you not!) and ensure a prosperous new year.
One of the most well attended and high-profile pagara spectacles is conducted by MetaCorp, owners of the Renaissance complexes in Oranjestad. It stopped traffic along L.G. Smith Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon, December 31, as the six million shot pagara was laid out, encompassing the entirety of the Renaissance street front, from The Cinemas to the Crystal Casino.
With two huge cruise ships in port, the 1:00 PM display drew countless tourists, along with islanders who consider it an essential part of their end of year ritual. It took 25 minutes from start to finish to thunderously make its way along the waterfront, followed by MetaCorp staffers.
Strolling Dande minstrels, performing the island music particularly associated with the year’s end, wended their way through the Renaissance Mall, stopping and each store and treating shoppers to a dose of authentic Aruban tradition.
Just over an hour later, Marriott Resorts GM Tom Calame, assisted by Henry Fingal of Morales Fireworks, set off a 12 million shot pagrara for the enjoyed of their guests and staffers, a symbolic end to their year. The string of firecrackers was so huge, it had to be laid out in a serpentine pattern, stretching through their parking lots from the entrance to the Marriott Surf Club and winding around to the beach access between the Marriott Resort proper and the Ritz-Carlton.
Though they have always performed this island ritual for the guests and associates, this was the second year the executive staff of the Marriott resorts regaled them with a pagara of such magnitude. Island visitors new to the tradition soon discovered that such a length takes nearly an hour to complete and how very noisy and smoky it can be!
