12 Amazing Peruvian Festivals part 1 of 2
Here are the first 6 Peruvian Festivals for your Pleasure
Perhaps you’ve read somewhere or other that there are over 3,000 traditional Peruvian festivals held throughout the year? It’s a popular claim that pops up time and again in guidebooks and on websites, and though we ourselves haven’t verified the number, it certainly wouldn’t surprise us! Peru is a country that holds onto its traditions while increasingly embracing innovation as well, a perfect storm for Peruvian festivals and fiestas of all types to flourish and to grow.
If you’re planning to visit Peru, you might find yourself intrigued by the prospect of observing, or even participating in, one of these many different Peruvian festivals. If that’s the case, you’re in luck–we’ve taken the liberty to compile a list of some of our favorite Peruvian festivals, including one for each month of the year in hopes that you’ll find something that corresponds with the dates of your trip. Keep in mind that this is very much just the tip of the iceberg–all of these Peruvian festivals are fantastic, but there are many more that we’ve had to leave out simply due to the nature of our list. If we haven’t included any options that work out with your travel itinerary, don’t fret–get to researching and we’re sure you’ll find the festival for you.
So without further ado, let’s get to it! Here is our list of twelve awesome Peruvian festivals, one for each month of the year:
1. January–Trujillo Marinera Festival
Trujillo, a coastal city in northern Peru, is the traditional home of the marinera, an elegant couple’s dance making use of handkerchiefs as props. Since 1986 it’s been the official national capital of this dance, a status celebrated annually in a month-long marinera festival held throughout the city! The Festival de Marinera, as it’s known in Spanish, features dance competitions, parades, and even exhibitions of the Peruvian Paso, a breed of horse also recognized as part of the cultural patrimony of the Trujillo region. One of our favorite Peruvian festivals, this one is a can’t miss if you find yourself in the area during January.
2. February–Fiesta de la Candelaria
The Fiesta de la Candelaria is one of the largest Peruvian festivals.
The Fiesta de la Candelaria is not only the largest and most famous festival in Peru, but also one of the largest in South America as a whole–in fact, throughout the continent, it’s only dwarfed by the world-famous Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the Carnaval de Ouro in Bolivia. The first of many religious Peruvian festivals on our list, the Fiesta de la Candelaria celebrates the Virgin of Candelaria, the patron saint of the town of Puno where the festivities are held. Music and dance are at the core of this festival, all of it performed by elaborately-costumed participants numbering well over 40,000. An incredible two week-long synthesis of indigenous and Catholic traditions, this is one of the most iconic Peruvian festivals.
3. March–Festival Internacional de la Vendimia
The Festival Internacional de la Vendimia is one of our favorite Peruvian festivals.
Depending upon where Easter falls during a given year, the month of March can either be very busy or very quiet as far as major Peruvian festivals are concerned. That said, we figured we may as well take a break from the religious festivals to focus on something else with a different sort of appeal–wine! The Ica Region of Peru is famous for a number of things, the Nazca Lines and the desert oasis of La Huacachina among them, but those in-the-know also recognize it as the finest wine-producing region in the country. This role has been celebrated annually in March since the 1950s during the Festival Internacional de la Vendimia, or the International Harvest Festival, in which a queen is famously chosen to ceremoniously stomp the first grapes of the season.
4. April–Festividad del Señor del los Temblores del Cusco
Image of the Lord of the Earthquakes, one of the major Peruvian festivals in Cusco.
Image appears courtesy of photoexperience.net.
El Señor de los Temblores, or the Lord of the Earthquakes, is the patron saint of Cusco and the celebratory focus of this major Holy Week celebration. The story goes that during an earthquake here in 1650, a canvas image of Jesus Christ was held to the sky as prayers were offered, causing the tremors to subside and saving the town from ruin. Since then, this statue commemorating the original image has become the focal point of an important annual celebration. Each Easter Monday at 7 PM, the statue is removed from Cusco’s cathedral and paraded throughout the city. Amazingly, it’s said that the statue was not originally black, but rather that its color is due to years of exposure to smoke from incense during religious ceremonies. read More Here
Sacred Plants: Ritual and Medical Uses | Plantas Sagradas en las Américas
Speakers and presentations (This panel took place on February 24, 2018):
Wladimyr Sena Araújo - Dsoppineje: Sistema de salud Madija (Kulina) y el uso de sustancias sagradas.
Rodrigo Iamarino Caravita - El uso del Tabaco en el contexto de los rituales del Camino Rojo en Brasil.
Jate Kulchavita Bouñe - La Coca y el Tabaco en el proceso de renacimiento del pueblo Muhysqa de Colombia.
Ligia Duque Platero - La dieta del Muká como transposición de jerarquías entre los Yawanawa en Brasil.
Alejandro Marín Valencia - Consumo ritual de enteógenos e imaginarios de sanación en Medellín, Colombia.
The Sacred Plants in the Americas conference was held on February 23, 24, and 25, 2018 in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico. The conference had the purpose of building a bridge between indigenous and traditional psychoactive practices, psychedelic science, and drug policy through multidisciplinary and intercultural dialogue. In a context in which drug policy reforms are temporary, we consider it relevant to build spaces for discussion about psychoactive species and their growing multiplicity of uses. Moreover, it also sought to give voice to the indigenous people, who have been knowledgeable about psychoactive plants since ancient times, and they presented several lectures at the conference.
El congreso Plantas Sagradas en las Américas se realizó los días 23, 24 y 25 de febrero del 2018 en Ajijic, Jalisco, México. Tuvo la finalidad de construir un puente entre las prácticas indígenas y tradicionales de psicoactivos, la ciencia psicodélica y las políticas de drogas; mediante el diálogo multidisciplinario e intercultural. En un contexto en que las reformas a las políticas de drogas son coyunturales, consideramos relevante construir espacios de discusión sobre las especies psicoactivas y su creciente multiplicidad de usos. Además se buscó dar voz a los indígenas, que han sido conocedores de las plantas psicoactivas desde tiempos ancestrales, por lo que ellos impartirán las conferencias magistrales durante el congreso.
Info
Plantas Sagradas en las Américas:
Drogas, Política y Cultura:
Chacruna: