Peruvian Christmas

Hi there!

I have been absent for some weeks, but today I retake my blog with new force! I want to tell you about Peruvian Christmas. For some minutes I hesitated if I should write about it because I have never passed Christmas there. The only thing I can do is to present what I read about Peruvian Christmas' traditions. It's a good lesson for me too, because if I didn't need to write a post here, I wouldn't read nothing about this subject, I would still remain ignorant! (Recently, I became quite... lazy. I hope it's only the Christmas time, food and a lot of free time...)

So here we go. First of all, we have to remember that in December in Peru there is between spring and summer. The temperatures in Lima oscillate around 18-24 grades, so the wheather is warm. For this reason, we will never see snow in this part of the Earth. That's the first and the basic feature of the Peruvian Christmas that I used like an introduction.

Plaza de Armas, the very central place in Lima

The Peruvians go to a mass celebrated around midnight, or to a mass of December 25. For them the second day of Christmas, December 26 when we remember saint Stephen, Christian martyr, is not holy day of obligation.

Plazas and parks are not only places to decorate with Christmas Tree of lights, but also to perform carols. Children or adult choirs sing there to share with the pedestrians a little of happiness. It's also very common that children and adolescents go with their school groups to visit hospitals, retirement homes or orphanages.

In many companies the employees receive something like Christmas basket that contains the basic products they eat in the Christmas dinner: champagne, panettone (sweet bread with raisins), rice, tables of chocolate, walnuts, raisins, etc. Their employers can give them also peacock, to prepare in home the most important dish of the dinner.

At midnight they are all hug one another wishing "Feliz Navidad", Merry Christmas! The head of the family give a speech and after they drink a toast. They distribute the presents and watch fireworks.

In some houses people have Christmas tree, in others the Nativity scene that is more common than in Poland. It reamins without the figure of Baby Jesus. At midnight the smallest child put it in the manger. It can very small, symbolic, but in a lot of cases it has very local, traditional character.

 

Of course, there can't miss typical music in form of Christmas carols! In this one, the children sing that they will bring to Mary and the small Jesus typical products of Peruvian handicrafts: chullo (a type of hat), coloured poncho, charango (a Bolivian and Peruvian instrument)... And, obviously, they ask where he was born? The answer is that in Peru! Because they call him traditionally: cholito (a person with indigenous heritage, indian and Spanish blood).

I don't know you, but I learnt a lot writing this post! :)

Brisas del Titicaca

In Lima I went with some friends of my boyfriend, Fernando and Rosa María to a show of folk dances of Peru. The association that make it possible is Brisas del Titicaca (Breezes of Titicaca lake). It was a pleasure be there! Apart from see the show we ordered delicious pachamanca with pisco, the national alcohol that tastes like vodka but is made from grapes. The drink we exaclty orderes called pisco sour is pisco with lemon juice and white of eggs.

With my boyfriend, Rosa María and Fernando in the dancing floor

Drinking pisco

I only introduce this place because in base of what I saw there now I can share it with you and say you about other dances that Polish people have never seen. I will start with festejo that is the unique one with African roots. Nowadays some modern artists use it like a base of mixes, for example with electronic music.

 

The primitive version

Mix of festejo and electronic music, very trendy nowadays

Other dance I want to present you is saya. I had known it after I went to Brisas del Titicaca. In the family I was living with, Sarahit, the daughter, told me about her experience in primary school where she performed with her group exactly this dance. I found interesting a detail that she commented me. And it's that the skirts of the girls are very very heavy, although they seem short and light. They have a few parts made of metal! And the dancers should move them all the time! Sarahit recommend me a song she likes a los "Soy caporal".

Sarahit and me in Plaza de Armas, the principal plaza of Lima

 Rosa María and me with saya dancers

The last dance I would like to show you is danza de las tijeras (dance of the scissors). The dancers don't have real scissors in their hands. What they hold is two pieces of the scissors, bigger that the normal size, and not so sharp. They use them like an instrument. The choreography is complicated, unrepeatable, in my opinion (and I haven't a lot in common with the dance, almost no practice :P ).

Rosa María and me with the dancers of danza de las tijeras

I know what you will say: that I love put videos in my posts! :D That's true, in my opinion the videos are the best samples of cultures faraway that we can't see, touch or experiment by ourselves, directly. So, relish them! :)