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OBG®'s Multicultural Monday




Monday, March 12, 2012
Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

Baile de la Botella

I love The Amazing Race.  The show went to Paraguay last week and in addition to learning that the harp is Paraguay's national instrument (who knew?), I also learned about Paraguay's traditional Baile de la Botella also known as the Bottle Dance.

Performed only by girls and somewhat of a holiday tradition, the dancers start out with one bottle balanced on their heads as they dance. Then they begin adding more bottles one at a time. Depending on the experience of the dancer, there may be more than ten bottles at a time.




But guess what?  Paraguay isn't the only place you can see Bottle Dancers.  There are Jewish Bottle Dancers (typically male), Hungarian Bottle Dancers (women with bottles full of alcohol) and Chinese Muslim (women again) Bottle Dancers too!  #supercool 

The [Hui] bottle dance...evolved from Muslim custom. Before meals, Muslims wash their hands with water, while before attending religious services, they perform either a "minor cleaning" of the face, mouth, nose, hands and feet, or a "major cleaning" of the whole body. In both cases, they use a traditional water bottle. Gradually, the Hui developed a dance with the bottle to entertain themselves during the cleaning process. 

You must, must, must look at the beautiful Hui images here.

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OBG®'s Interesting Cultural Facts (ICFs) are back!  No longer lost on OBG®'s Twitter feedMulticultural Mondays celebrate culture and diversity worldwide by posting an ICF and corresponding photo every Monday from a multicultural blogger we love...






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2 comments:

Aqueelah on: March 12, 2012 at 11:08 AM said...

I've learned something new today! Thanks for the info...how on earth do they add the bottles?

Unknown on: March 12, 2012 at 11:49 AM said...

I have no idea, Aqueelah! Let's go to Paraguay and find out! ;-)

 

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