The fiesta de quince años / quinceañera is a celebration of a catholic girl's 15th birthday. It has its cultural roots in Mesoamerica and is widely celebrated today throughout the Americas, strongest in Mexico. The girl celebrating her 15th birthday is called a quinceañera (feminine form of "15-year-old"). This birthday is celebrated differently from any other as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood.
Jonathan invited me to join two fiestas de quince años with him during my stay in Aguascalientes. I was overwhelmed at both of them how extensively this special birthday party of girls
is celebrated. During the whole event, the quinceañera is accompanied by chambelanes. These young men could be friends, siblings or relatives. Traditionally it were 14 boys
(chambelanes) as well as 14 girls (damas), today many quinceañeras celebrate with less than 14 chambelanes and sometimes without damas at all. They usually
perform a series of dances during the celebration, the most traditional one is a waltz. Jonathan rehearsed the dances with them at the fiesta de quince años of
Wendy, the first of the two we went to.
The second quinceañera we went to was for Gretel and in a small village outside of the city of Aguascalientes. Apart from many dances with a lot of live music the whole evening was captured by professional photographers, I just took a few additionally. Every guest could choose from a multitude of different giveaways which were sweets that could be taken home as a small souvenir of the celebration. Unfortunately, the event organizer just used disposable dishes although it seemed to be an established business and a lot of garbage was produced which made me very sad.
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