FESTIVAL CALENDAR
JANUARY
Marinera Dance Festival: courting with a handkerchief. Trujillo (La Libertad)
Trujillo
January 20th
The marinera is one of the most elegant dances in Peru. The dance involves a great deal of flirting between a couple, who each twitch a handkerchief in their right hand, while keeping the beat during what is fairly complex choreography.
From January 20-30, the Gran Chimú stadium in the city of Trujillo holds the country's most important marinera festival. This competition, that draws couples from all over the country, is organized by the Club Libertad. During the festival, the city also hosts processions involving floats, and the whole town takes on a festive air. The people of Trujillo gather at the main square to dance and celebrate.
FEBRUARY
Virgen de la Candelaria: faith in the folk capital of the Americas.
Puno
February 2nd (Main day)
For 18 days, the highland town of Puno, nestled on the shores of Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 3,870 meters above sea level, is becomes the Folk Capital of the Americas. The festival gathers more than 200 groups of musicians and dancers to celebrate the Mamacha Candelaria. For the first nine days, the mayordomos (those in charge of organizing the festivities), decorate the church and pay for Mass, banquets and fireworks displays. On the main day, February 2nd, the virgin is led through the city in a colorful procession comprising priests, altar boys, the faithful, Christians and pagans carefully maintaining the hierarchy. This is the moment when the troupes of musicians and dancers take the scene, performing and dancing throughout the city.
MARCH
Lunahuana Adventure Sports Festival: a week of adventure.
Cañete
March 5th
The pleasant valley of Lunahuaná, a paradise for adventure sports lovers, is just half an hour from San Vicente de Cañete, a town 150 km in the south of Lima. The main attraction is the fast-running Cañete River, which features rapids up to Class IV. Each year, the valley hosts a festival involving rafting, parasailing, trekking, gliding, mountain biking and fishing competitions.
Wine Festival: a miracle in the desert
Ica
March 10th
This festival is a celebration of the abundance of grapes and wine in the region of Ica (a four-hour drive south of Lima), where persevering efforts in local vineyards have spread greenery across vast tracts of once bone-dry desert. The Wine Festival (Festival de la Vendimia) involves fairs, competitions, processions of floats, musical festivals and parties where guests dance the Afro-Peruvian festejo.
Señor de los Temblores. El Cristo moreno y la flor carmesí
Cusco
March 20th – April 05th
Desde 1650 cuando, según los devotos, un lienzo del Cristo de la Buena Muerte detuvo un fuerte sismo que remecía la ciudad del Cusco, los pobladores le rinden culto a la imagen del Taitacha Temblores. La celebración se realiza el Lunes Santo en el marco de la Semana Santa en el Cusco. Esta celebración tiene especial interés porque permite apreciar nítidamente la fusión de las religiones andina y cristiana. La misma Catedral del Cusco, en la que reposa la imagen, está construida sobre la base del antiguo templo dedicado al dios Apulla Tikse Wiracocha. La imagen del Señor de los Temblores es llevada en procesión por diferentes calles de la ciudad como se hacía con las antiguas momias de los jefes, sacerdotes y los gobernantes incas. Finalmente, el elemento central de la celebración recae sobre la flor de ñucchu (salvia esplendes), que se empleaba para ofrendar al dios Kon y a Wiracocha y con la que actualmente se confecciona la corona del Señor de los Temblores. Esta flor carmesí, cuyos pétalos son arrojados por los feligreses sobre la imagen venerada, simboliza la sangre de Cristo.
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APRIL
Peruvian Paso Horse Festival: the dance of the stallions
Pachacámac
April 15th – 20th
The Spanish horse, bred with the Arab stallion and reared in a desert environment, which formed its gait, gave rise to the Peruvian Paso horse. For 300 years, the blood of this new breed was improved upon until the Paso horse developed the characteristics that have made it one of the world's most beautiful and elegant breeds. Breeders, chalán riders and artisans, over the years, have worked on the art of ambladura -the synchronized gait of the fore and hindlegs- which in turn gave rise to the elegant steps and dress of the marinera.
MAY
Qoyllur Riti. The greatest indigenous: pilgrimage in the Americas
Quispicanchis, Cusco
May 01st – 07th
Each year the people of the district of Ocongate (Quispicanchis) perform a ritual whose external aspect appears to be the image of Christ, but whose real objective is to bring Man closer to Nature.
The ritual, associated with the fertility of the land and the worship of Apus, the spirits of the mountains, forms part of the greatest festival of native Indian nations in the hemisphere: Qoyllur Riti. The main ceremony is held at the foot of Mount Ausangate, at 4,700 meters, where temperatures often plunge below freezing. Today, the festival starts off with the day of the Holy Trinity, when more than 10,000 pilgrims climb to the snowline, accompanied by all sorts of dancers in full costume (chauchos, qollas, pabluchas or ukukus) portray various mythical characters. The ukukus, or bears, are the guardians of the Lord and the Apu mountain spirits and apachetas, stone cairns built along the way by pilgrims to atone for their sins. The ukukus maintain order during religious ceremonies. A group of hefty queros, members of what is probably Peru's purest Quechua community, dress up as pabluchas and set out for the mountaintop, at 6,362 meters in search of the Snow Star which is reputedly buried within the mountain. On their way back down to their communities, they haul massive blocks of ice on their backs for the symbolic irrigation of their lands with holy water from the Ausangate.
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JUNE
Inti Raymi: the Inca festival of the Sun
Cusco
June 24th
The Winter Solstice in the southern hemisphere and the local harvests are the driving force behind the greatest, most majestic pre-Hispanic ceremony to render homage to the sun. Today, the Inti Raymi festival evokes the splendid Inca ritual of yore, being carefully scripted by Cuzco professors, archaeologists and historians. The central event is acted out on the esplanade below the imposing fortress of Sacsayhuamán, 2 km outside the city of Cuzco, easily reached by car or on foot. There, step by step, thousands of actors enact a long ceremony giving thanks to the sun god, Inti. The Inca ruler is borne on a royal litter from the Koricancha, or Temple of the Sun to the Huacaypata, the city's main square, where he commands the local authorities to govern fairly.
San Juan: fertility and sensuality
Cusco, Loreto, San Martín, Ucayali
June 24th
In the jungle, Saint John the Baptist has taken on a major symbolic significance because of the importance of water as a vital element in the entire Amazon region. This is why June 24 (St. John's the Baptist's day) is the most important date on the festival calendar in the entire Peruvian jungle. The northeastern city of Iquitos hosts a variety of festivals and public events: fiestas with typical local bands where cooks dish up some of the regional cuisine, featuring tacacho (baked banana) and juanes (rice pastries), named after the patron saint, San Juan Bautista. In the highlands, the festival is also linked to the concept of fertility, but here the main theme is livestock, something that is easily associated with the image of Saint John as the pastor of souls. On this day, livestock are counted and branded, and llamas are sometimes even the object of prayer. In Cuzco, where peasant farmers used to bring their richly decorated sheep to Mass, the tradition has been shifted to June 25, yielding to Inti Raymi.
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JULY
Independence Day: Peru, free and independent
All over the country
July 28th – 29th
Across the country, Peruvians throw parties and hold patriotic celebrations to remember the Declaration of Peru's Independence (July 28, 1,821) by the Libertador José de San Martín. In Lima and cities across Peru, even in remote communities, homes fly the Peruvian flag from the start of July. On the night of July 27, Peruvians often stage serenatas to the strains of folk and Creole music in plazas and public parks. Dawn on July 28 is greeted with a salvo of 21 cannons, to herald the ceremony of raising the flag. On the following day, before the famous military parade is held in downtown Lima, the Te Deum ceremony, attended by the president, is celebrated in the Lima Cathedral.
OCTOBER
The Lord of Miracles: the largest procession in South America
Lima
October 18th – 28th
This procession, which gathers together the largest number of believers in South America, dates back to colonial times, when a slave, brought over from Angola, drew the image of a black Christ on the walls of a wretched hut in the plantation of Pachacamilla, near Lima. The image stayed on the wall despite several attempts to erase it. This was to spark widespread devotion for the image, which survived intact on the wall despite an earthquake in 1 746 which leveled all surrounding buildings. As a result of this event, worship of the image rose to new heights, until it became what is today the most widely venerated image in the city of Lima. The heart of the celebration is one of the largest processions to take place every year in the Americas, where tens of thousands of the faithful dress in purple tunics, singing hymns and praying as they accompany the image. Around this time of year, the streets fill with vendors of a wide variety of typical dishes and sweets, such as the famous Turrón de Doña Pepa. In October to commemorate the Lord of Miracles (Señor de los Milagros), Lima hosts the well-known bullfight season which carries the same name and is held in the centuries-old Plaza de Acho bullring. The season features some major bullfighters (toreros) from Spain and Latin America.
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DECEMBER
Andean Christmas: a time of integration and artistic splendor
All over the country
December 24th – 25th
The rural context of the arrival of the infant Christ allowed early Peruvians to identify immediately with the festivity, highlighted by artisan creativity, a sense of aesthetics and the religious devotion of Andean settlers. Andean Christmas began taking on characteristics of its own by adding elements from each region. These elements stand out for the extreme care with which highlanders put together Nativity scenes in churches and homes, perform dances and plays, cook typical dishes and produce a wide range of handicrafts such as Nativity scenes in Huamanga stone, retablos featuring images related to Christmas and pottery or carved gourds called mates burilados decorated with Yuletide scenes. In most Andean communities, the festival continues until la Bajada de los Reyes (the arrival of the three wise men), January 6, when traditionally people exchange gifts.
Santuranticuy Fair: saints for sale
Cusco
December 24th
The origin of this fair dates back to the Vice-regency, and today has become one of the largest arts and crafts fairs in Peru. It is held in the main square of Cuzco, where artisans lay out blankets on the sidewalks, as is the custom in traditional Andean fairs. Santuranticuy, which means "saints for sale", is a provisional market where image carvers and artisans sell a wide variety of figurines to liven up Christmas and fit out the Nativity scenes that are set up in homes and parish churches. The fair also sells a variety of ceramic objects brought from Pucará and Quinua. Here one can find all sorts of arts and crafts, such as wooden carvings, pottery and the boxed scenes called retablos. At night, street vendors sell a traditional hot and sweet rum punch called ponche, to warm up chilly visitors.
Virgen del Carmen. The little peon
El Guayabo y el Carmen (Chincha, Ica)
December 27th
The Virgen del Carmen is the most widely venerated image in Peru after the Lord of Miracles. Its worship dates back to colonial times when friars from the Carmeline Order arrived. In various communities in Ica (300 km south of Lima) as well as the areas of El Carmen and El Guayabo in Chincha (200 km south of Lima), home to most of Peru's Afro-Peruvian population, the locals render a special homage to the virgin at the end of every year. What is unique about this festival is that here it is called La Peoncita (the little peon) for its link with teenagers who perform the dances called los negritos and las pallitas, in honor of the Virgin.
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