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! :)