Hundreds of Teenage Girls March in Ball Gowns for Mass Quinceanera Daily Mail UK
go to original April 29, 2012

Mexico City held a giant Quinceñer fiesta for hundreds of young women on Saturday, Al Jazeera's Franc Contreras reports.

Hundreds of girls celebrating their fifteenth birthdays attended a mass ‘Quinceañera’ celebration in Mexico City Saturday.

Every year, the mayor of the Mexican capital hosts a ‘coming of age’ celebration to which he invites girls from the city, a tradition dating back to the Spanish colonial era when girls had their official debut in society at the ages of 15 and 16.

It marks the transition from childhood to adulthood and is common in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries.

On Saturday, 348 teenagers descended on the capital, lighting up the somewhat dreary day with their colourful ball gowns.

Each girl teamed her elaborate dress with a sparkling tiara, and had her make up done especially for the occasion.

The birthday girls posed by monuments while holding umbrellas in a rainbow of colours, and then boarded a bus for a tour of the city.

The rite-of-passage celebration can be expensive, which is why the mass Quinceañera was organised.

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