Festivals, Sacred Rituals, Religion
Peruvian festivals, pilgrimages, religions, religious ceremonies, sacred rituals, sacred beliefs, cosmology
-
Getting Our Bearings Back after Qoyllur Rit’i
Back in Lima today after four days and three nights at Qoyllur Rit’i. We got great material (interviews, photos, video), and all of us survived, but it was an ordeal. Bitterly cold temperatures (-10 degrees Celcius), sleepless nights accompanied by constant drumming, dynamite being set off helter-skelter. Having to re-set up camp ourselves in the dark due to our arriero‘s incompetence (tents pitched at angles, facing wind). El Fotografo passing out due to exertion at high altitude….I could go on and on. But on the plus side — we met a great comparsa from Cusco-Santiago, who welcomed us into their rituals and let us understand the remarkable faith that drives pilgrims to make this…
-
Going up the Mountain Today
It is quarter of nine in the morning, and we’re waiting for the van to pick us up at Hostal Buena Vista, in Cusco, to take us to Mawayni. That’s where pilgrims begin the eight-kilometer climb to the shrine of Qoyllur Rit’i. The hostal is owned by El Fotografo’s cousin Jorge, who’s got a nice thing going here. We’re listening to the Waifs and eating local bread with eggs, cheese, ham — 100 percent energy, as Jorge says. El Hijo likes Cusco this time around. I have no idea how well he will cope at high altitude, surrounded by tens of thousands of dancing, chanting pilgrims. Tonight we’ll find out.…
-
In Search of the Vanishing Snow Star
El Fotografo and I are turning the house upside-down this weekend, as we air out camping gear to go to the glacier pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit’i (“Snow Star” in Quechua) next week. The annual Andean pilgrimage takes place in a remote valley in southern Peru, at the foot of 16,000-foot-high Qolqepunku Glacier. Pilgrims travel from all over central and southern Peru, as well as northern Boliva, to attend this remarkable event, the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The Catholic Church has its hand in Qoyllur Rit’i, but what really interests me and El Fotografo are the indigenous, ice-worshipping rituals that people perform at Qoyllur Rit’i. That’s why we’re…
-
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Peru!
Peru celebrates many days devoted to saints from the Catholic pantheon, but not much fuss is made here over St. Patrick, one of Ireland’s three santos patronales. He is credited with converting the Irish populace to Christianity, a struggle that is symbolized visually as St. Patrick casting down a mass of wriggling snakes (the Irish “heathen” — see above). You won’t find green beer flowing from the taps in Lima pubs as you do in U.S. cities with large Irish-American populations, such as Boston, Albany and Philadelphia. And you certainly won’t find Limeños parading around the downtown Plaza de Armas dressed in green and sporting buttons that read, “Besame. Soy Irelandesa.” What you will find in Lima are a few…
-
Cleaning up Col. Leoncio Prado
photos c. Barbara Drake 2009 As I passed through Leoncio Prado park this morning, I caught sight of this municipal worker cleaning the general himself with a hose. A hero/martyr in Peru’s disasterous four-year war with Chile (1879-1883), Col. Leoncio Prado opted to be gunned down by an enemy firing squad rather than surrender his arms. A big statue of him sits in the middle of Leoncio Prado park, across from my house in Miraflores. The Peruvian military owns the park as I found out last July 15 when it was occupied by battalions of soldiers and Masonic dignitaries celebrating Leoncio Prado’s birthday. If you weren’t wearing a uniform or a Masonic apron, you weren’t…
-
Happy New Year!
El Fotógrafo, El Hijo and I are back in Lima after spending two weeks in the United States. We arrived in time to celebrate the new year Peruvian-style with El Filosofo, his family and our friends. A big dinner, fireworks (correction: explosives) in the park, champagne, 12 grapes a midnight. A six-foot-high stuffed doll symbolizing the passing year was burned in the street. As the flames leaped and crackled, a lone security guard putted by on his motorcycle and waved. Burning life-size effigies in public spaces is evidently okay in Peru. Some of us wore yellow underwear for good luck (see photo above of typical stall selling New Year’s…
-
Happy International Mountain Day! (December 11)
Five years ago, the U.N. General Assembly Declared December 11 “International Mountain Day.” The celebration is part of an ongoing effort by the U.N. to increase people’s awareness about the importance of mountains to life on this planet, and to build partnerships that will “bring change to the world’s mountains and highlands.” The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations notes: Mountains are crucial to life. Whether we live at sea level or the highest elevations, we are connected to mountains and affected by them in more ways than we can imagine. Mountains provide most of the world’s freshwater, harbour a rich variety of plants and animals, and…
-
Happy Halloween, Peruvian-style
It’s 5:30 in the afternoon here in Lima, and the Peruvian version of Halloween is underway. In my neighborhood of Miraflores, the holiday consists of big groups of kids running through the streets screaming “Halloween! Halloween!” Some are wearing costumes, but many aren’t. Every child has a bag for candy, though. When the children ring the doorbell, they scream “Halloween!” over and over until someone answers. They may stand at someone’s door for five minutes, hoping that someone will eventually poke a head out. El Hijo is disgusted that they don’t know the proper protocol. “They don’t even know that you say ‘trick or treat,’ ” he sneered. “Duh.” My son has…
-
Is Yahoo! Hoping for a Peruvian-style Miracle with Its October “Wear Purple” Media Blitz?
Purple Yahoo! kicks, part of its line of Wear Purple gear Here’s a strange convergence of cyber branding trends and Peruvian religious tradition. The online portal Yahoo! is pushing a “Wear Purple” promotional campaign in October, which is coincidentally (?) known as mes morado (purple month) in Peru. “Yahoo! Start Wearing Purple” the campaign’s website screams. (It’s all an effort to associate the Yahoo! brand with this color, which began with reconfigured purple logo in July.) Images of purple skate shoes, purple t-shirts and purple toys float on a deep eggplant-hued background. A blip of teaser text explains: “Purple is the IN color this season–and for us, every season. Check out our…
-
El Senor de los Milagros in Pachacamac
Two days from now, October 18, Lima will be gripped by El Señor de los Milagros fever. That’s the day when hundreds of thousands of purple-clad devotees take part in an elaborate street procession to celebrate a 350-year-old miraculous Christ icon. (See my post on “Purple Month and the Lord of the Miracles,” Oct. 10, 2008). While Lima’s procession draws the largest crowds, towns throughout Peru celebrate with equal fervor. Images made of flower petals are painstakingly arranged along processional routes, to be trod upon by hundreds of devotees singing, chanting and carrying a replica of the miraculous Christ image. Children, parents and elders take part. Some people fall on their knees and…
-
Purple Month (Mes Morado) and the Lord of the Miracles
It is October in Lima, also known as mes morado, the Purple Month. There are purple banners hung along streets in downtown Lima, purple candles sold on street corners, desserts tied with purple bows displayed in bakery windows. A favorite pastry is a flat, candy- and syrup-drenched affair known as Turron de Dona Pepa. On city streets and in banks and restaurants, you’ll find people dressed in purple head to toe. Usually they are middle-aged ladies wearing conservative knee-length dresses and pants suits. Sometimes it will be a child dressed in a purple robe with matching cape. Occasionally you will see a trendsetter in a purple mini skirt, purple…
-
Photo of the Day: Masked Sheep’s Head Dancer, Qoyllur Rit’i Pilgrimage 2006
Masked dancer at Qoyllur Rit’i festival, Peru, 2006 El Fotografo spied this guy at the 2006 pilgrimage. He embodies the fertility cult that underpins the festival’s Catholic traditions, which have been sycretized with older, Andean rituals. I find this image rather terrifying, for some reason. We looked again for the Sheep’s Head Dancer this past May but didn’t see hide nor hair of him, as they say. —Barbara R. Drake
-
Hey, Police Dude! Don’t Shoot My Shaman!
Lately I’m struck by the enormous disparity between the sudden crises that erupt in Peru – the events that make news headlines — and the idyllic, often mystical image of Peru that’s promoted by the tourism industry. As I write this post, thousands of travelers around the globe are busy planning their once-in-a-lifetime visit to The Land Where Time Stands Still. They’re salivating over glossy images of Machu Picchu at sunrise, of colorful handicrafts markets in the Sacred Valley, of gentle Shipibo women embroidering sarongs in the Amazon, and of red-cheeked Andean kiddies hugging llamas. They’re reassured by brochures that show tourists eating The Complimentary Continental Breakfast at The Recommended…
-
Happy (Dead) Leoncio Prado Day
This morning, I woke up to find the park outside our house occupied by about 150 armed troops. It was not a coup. The guys in camo and cadet uniforms and 19th-century calvalry getups were members of the Peruvian military taking part in a tribute to Colonel Leoncio Prado, a hero/martyr in the War of the Pacific (1879–1883). Today marks the 125th anniversary of Prado’s death in 1883. The colonel led Peruvian troops in the ill-fated war with Bolivia against Chile, which resulted in both Peru and Bolivia losing valuable land to the victor. Peru has never recovered from the trauma, which lingers like an open wound in the national conciousness. The country still feels oppressed…
