It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, or 4th of July or whatever

Christmas Eve, or Noche Buena, is the big deal here in Peru, and Christmas Day less so, as everyone recovers from the night before.  The missionaries from here in the Mantaro Valley gathered on the main square and sang Christmas carols for about an hour, and had pretty good-sized groups of listeners.  The square was crowded with families, folks selling stuff, teenagers hanging out, etc.
As we walked back to the car safely parked at the Mission office, we came across tons of people selling major fireworks on the street.

I mean anything you wanted, any size, any number.
At midnight, we were awakened by what sounded like a major battle outside.  We went up on the third floor terrace where we were afforded a good view of the city.
Oh My Word!!  Wow!  It was incredible!  In all directions, including directly overhead, there were amazing aerial fireworks going off.  I mean big, major stuff!!

This went on for at least 20 minutes, with jaw-dropping displays in all directions.
Last year, we spent Christmas Eve in our small apartment, and though I remember sleepily hearing some explosions, we didn't notice much.  We're setting our alarms for next Christmas Eve!
We hope that your Christmas Eve was perhaps more, er, reverent, but I have to admit, this was fun!
Dave & Paula