At the end of the 19th century, in the city of Managua, the discovery of a tiny statue of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, led to the beginning of a traditional holiday that fills the city with colour, fervour and joy on two days in August.

Every August, on the 1st and 10th of the month, the main thoroughfares of Managua are flooded with people celebrating the “Minguito” festivities. In Nicaragua “mingo” is a nickname of the name Domingo, and minguito is a diminutive of the latter, referring to the small statue.

Apart from the ten days in August, minguito is housed in the Parish of Las Sierritas. After an early morning mass on August 1st, the statue is taken in a grand procession accompanied by thousands of onlookers to the Santo Domingo de Managua Church. Oftentimes, ‘Descent’ means some spiritual journey. In this case, it’s far more pragmatic. The Parish of Las Sierritas is at a higher altitude than the Santo Domingo de Managua Church, so the minguito is literally descending.

On August 10th, it is time for the statue to make its way to the Parish of Las Sierritas. It is taken back in another elaborate and colourful parade bring to end the Santo Domingo celebrations in the city for another year.

Santo Domingo de Guzmán was a 12th-century Spanish priest and founder of the Dominican Order. Both his dates of his birth (August 8th 1170) and death (August 6th 1221) fall inside the dates of the Managua holidays.

If you think about Dominic and Latin America, two countries jump put at you – Dominica and the Dominican Republic. Dominica was named by Christopher Columbus in 1493, but rather than naming it after the saint as was his usual rule, it is named after Sunday, the day of the week when he first sighted the island. The Dominican Republic is named after Saint Dominic, with the capital still named Santo Domingo.