La Noche de Rabanos is celebrated on the 23rd of December and has been celebrated that day for over 115 years. This festival by far, is one of the most impressive vegetable festivals and very unique since it combines agriculture with folk art. It is held in the "zocalo" or city center.
The event consist of several 100 exhibitors who design sculptures and scenes from specially grown large red radishes. The radishes are grown just for the event in a field next to the airport and are left in the ground for months after the normal harvest time. They become very large and misshaped.( They are heavily fertilized, treated with chemicals and certainly are not for consumption.
The artisans are professional craftsman and aficionados, but they usually all are radish growers! In addition, many of the sculptured scenes include dried flowers and cornhusks. I loved the use of Strawflowers.
We had just arrived late the night before and were having a leisurely breakfast in an open air restaurant the morning of the competition. We sat fascinated by the flurry of activity directly across from us. At that point most of the competitors were feverishly working on the final touches. We could not get on the gated walkway but were close enough to take many pictures.
We had read in all the guide books that this event was very popular, so while it was being set up was a great time to get a close up look. Little did we realize how much this advice should be heeded. By 4:00 police barriers had been set up and literally the lines were miles long. A guide told us last year he waited over 3 hours for a very crowded peek .
I was absolutely blown away my the popularity of this festival, young and old waiting in lines for hours on end to look at carved radishes. This sculptures were all different and all very intricate and all of this for a prize of less than $13,000 pesos or approximately $1,300 US. But the most valued prize is the fact that the winners gets their picture, with their creation in the local paper!!
All this on the first day of 10 adventure filled days! Stay tuned!
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