When I was in El Salvador with La Ruta Inka I had the chance to witness a magnificent festival. This festival has been going on between two towns since El Salvador was a colony of Spain. All the people of one town get the statue of thier saint, San Christobal and hike up a montant to a cave where they camp over night. The next day the mayor or town leader puts San Christobal on their back and the whole group hikes back down to the other town.
At the other town the town's people are lined up waiting with a statue of their saint, San Lucas, for San Christobal to arrive with his people. Once the two saints get closer a group of people from both towns are dressed up in costumes that represent their Indian and Spanish ancestors start to dance with machetea in the middle of the main street as San Christobal comes into town.
The saints are carried buy town leaders and are brought little by little toward each other. This represents when both the saints met for the very first time to unite both towns. As they are carried toward each other they stop three times and are tilted forward signifying the three times they greeted each other on their first meeting.
At the last tilt or greeting the crowd that is made up of people from both towns cheer and trow confetti. After all the cheering, all the people line up in two lines and greet each other, one at a time like two high school teams would do after a game here in the states. This greet consists of both participants holding each others right hands like a hand shake and raising them up to their foreheads.
Once every one has greeted each other they walk together to the center of the town and dance traditional dances, celebrate their union, and eat typical foods.
