|
 Tourist calendar of Peru |
 |
| January |
|
Date: January 1
Celebration: Hand-over of the Staffs of Office
Place: Cusco
Description: The oldest men from each community in the area (los Yayas) gather at the beginning of each year to appoint the candidates who will become the maximum authorities of their villages: the Varayocs.
Date: January 20
Celebration: The Chiaraje
Place:Trujillo (La Libertad)
Description: Unique Andean battle, a ritual among community members, fought to the sound of music and the chants of warriors.
Date: January 20
Celebration: Festival of the Marinera
Place:Trujillo
Description: Event in which couples from all over Peru participate, demonstrating the grace and rhythm of this dance, which is one of the country’s most elegant.
|
| February |
|
Date: February 2
Celebration: Virgen de la Candelaria (Our Lady of Candlemas)
Place:Puno
Description: For 18 days, the high plateau city of Puno on the banks of Lake Titicaca (3 870 masl) becomes the folklore capital of America: more than 200 bands of musicians and dancers gather to celebrate the Mamacha Candelaria.
Date: February 27
Celebration: Tinca de Vacas
Place: Quico (Cusco)
Description: The central event of this feast, connected with the image of Saint James the Apostle, is the branding of the cattle. This branding, or “señalay” is celebrated only by the families that own cattle, who invite visitors to eat beef or llama meat and drink chicha, a corn-based beverage.
Date: 2nd half of February – 1st Week of March
Celebration: the Crosses of Porcón
Place: Porcón (Cajamarca)
Description: An impressive procession of huge, colorful crosses of reed and palm emerge from the early morning mists at 5 a.m. and cross the Porcón Valley to celebrate Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
|
| March |
|
Date: 2nd half of February – 1st week of March
Celebration: Carnival
Place:All of the country
Description: The festive nature of Peru’s Carnival in the Andean areas marks a periodic break with solemnity.
Date: 1st week of March
Celebration: Lunahuaná Adventure Sports Festival
Place: Cañete (Lima)
Description: Only 30 minutes from San Vicente de Cañete, a city located 150 km south of Lima, the warm Lunahuaná Valley is a paradise for adventure sports, thanks to the rushing waters of the Cañete River, which offers rapids up to level 4. A festival is held there, which includes canoeing, hand gliding, trekking, free flight, mountain bicycling, and line and reel and net fishing championships.
Date: 2nd week of March
Celebration:Harvest Festival
Place: Ica, Ica
Description: This festival celebrates the abundance of the grapes and wine from the Ica region (4 hours south of Lima by road), where perseverance has covered broad areas of land won from the desert with green grapevines.
|
| April |
|
Date: 2nd week of March – 1st week of April
Celebration: Holy Week
Place: Ayacucho
Description: The most fervent religious feelings of Andean man reach their zenith during this week. One of the most moving adaptations of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection is reenacted in San Cristóbal de Huamanga, the capital of Ayacucho.
Date: 2nd week of March – 1st week of April
Celebration: Lord of the Earthquakes
Place: Cusco
Description: Ever since 1650, when, according to the devotees, a painting of Christ of the Good Death stopped a strong earthquake that was shaking the city of Cusco, the people have been worshipping the image of the “Taitacha Temblores.” This celebration offers an excellent opportunity to experience the melding of the Andean and Christian religions.
Date: April 15 – 20
Celebration: Festival of the Peruvian Walking Horse
Place:Pachacámac (Lima)
Description: The Peruvian Walking Horse was born from the Spanish horse crossed with the Arabian and bred in a desert environment that marked its gait and its body shape.
|
| May |
|
Date: May 1
Celebration: Our Lady of Chapi
Place:Chapi (Arequipa)
Description: Every year, a huge pilgrimage sets out from the city of Arequipa and crosses the desert to the sanctuary of Chapi to venerate the image of Our Lady of Purification, today known as Our Lady of Chapi.
Date: May 3
Celebration: Lord of Muruhuay
Place:Acobamba (Junín)
Description: Left to fend for themselves by the Viceregal authorities, persons suffering from smallpox (muru: smallpox, huay: house) were helped by an image of Christ, which is believed to have “entered into” a huge rock at the foot of Mt. Shalacoto ( 2 959 masl) and remained there. Every year a pilgrimage preserving pre-Hispanic rites is made to this site in the District of Acobamba, 23 km from Tarma in the Department of Junín.
Date: May 3
Celebration: Feast of the Crosses
Place: Lima, Apurímac, Ayacucho, Junín and Cusco
Description: The members of each highland community in this widely disseminated feast gather to decorate their respective crosses and prepare them for the processions to the neighboring churches.
Date: 1st week of May
Celebration: Qoyllur Riti
Place: Quispicanchis (Cusco)
Description: The largest indigenous pilgrimage in the Americas. The inhabitants of the District of Ocongate (Quispicanchis) in the Department of Cusco carry out a rite whose external symbol is the image of Christ, but whose basic objective is to integrate man with nature.
|
| June |
|
Date: June 24
Celebration: Inti Raymi
Place: Cusco
Description: The winter solstice in the southern hemisphere and the harvest bring with them the celebration in memory of the greatest and most majestic pre-Hispanic ceremony in honor of the Sun.
Date: June 24
Celebration: Saint John’s Day
Place:Cusco, Loreto, San Martín and Ucayali
Description: In Peru’s jungle, Saint John the Baptist takes on a symbolic nature because of the preponderance of water as a vital element throughout the Amazon Basin.
Date: June 29
Celebration: Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s Day
Place: Chorrillos and Lurín (Lima), San José (Lambayeque)
Description: On the coast, Saint Peter has been chosen as the Patron Saint of the fishermen and is worshipped in the coves of Chorrillos and Lurín, in Lima, and in San José, 13 km north of Chiclayo.
Date: Movable
Celebration: Corpus Christi
Place: Cusco
|
| July |
|
Date: 2nd week of July (15 – 16)
Celebration: Our Lady of Carmen
Place: Paucartambo (Cusco)
Description: In Paucartambo, 4 hours from Cusco, a number of villages venerate Our Lady of Carmen, locally called “Mamacha Carmen,” the Patron Saint of the mestizos.
Date: July 28 – 29
Celebration: National Independence Day
Place: the whole country
Description: Patriotic festivities and celebrations are held throughout the country to commemorate the Declaration of Independence of Peru (July 28, 1821).
Date: July 26 – 30
Celebration: Yawar Feast
Place: Cotabambas (Apurímac)
Description: National Independence Day is celebrated in Ccollurqui, in the Province of Cotabambas, Apuríamac, 8 hours from the city of Abancay, with a bullfight whose symbolic characteristics make it a ritual.
|
| Agost |
|
Date: August 30
Celebration:Day of Saint Rose of Lima
Place: City of Lima and Quives (Lima), Ocopa (Junín) and Arequipa
Description: Saint Rose of Lima is the religious name given to a maiden in seventeenth century Lima, Isabel Flores de Oliva, whose religious vocation led her to dedicate her life to God and service to the ill.
|
| September |
|
Date: September 6 – 10
Celebration: Our Lady of Cocharcas
Place: Andahuaylas (Apurímac)
Description: Our Lady of Cocharcas is a sculpture ordered in 1598 by a devotee, Sebastián Quiminchi, from San Pedro de Cocharacas, in appreciation for the miracles granted by Our Lady of Copacabana, in Bolivia.
Date: September 21 – October 1
Celebration: International Spring Festival
Place: Trujillo (La Libertad)
Description: While the Spring Festival is celebrated throughout the country, it is at its most lavish in Trujillo.
|
| October |
|
Date: October 4
Celebration: Our Lady of the Rosary
Place: Lima, Ancash, Apurímac, Arequipa and Cusco
Description: Our Lady of the Rosary is the Patron Saint of the Dominican order, which during the colonial period was responsible for the brotherhood of the slaves. For that reason, its image is often accompanied by an icon with the letter “S” nailed in place (the symbol of the black slaves).
Date: 2nd week
Celebration: the Healing Lord of Ayabaca
Place: Ayabaca (Piura)
Description: A pilgrimage to Ayabaca, a village 211 km northeast of the northern city of Piura. During the central day of the feast, an image of Christ, Prisoner is paraded through the streets of the town, blanketed beforehand by rugs “woven” from fresh flowers.
Date: October 18 – 28
Celebration: the Lord of the Miracles
Place: Lima
Description: The most important part of the celebration is one of the largest processions in the Americas, in which tens of thousands of devotees sporting the traditional purple habits accompany the image of a dark Christ through the streets of Lima, chanting and praying. Tradition tells us that during the colonial period, an African slave drew an image of Christ on a wall and despite several attempts to remove it, together with the terrible earthquake of 1746, it remained standing.
Date: 3rd week of October
Celebration: the Lord of Luren
Place: Ica
Description: A festivity demonstrating the devotion to the Crucified Lord of Luren, the Patron Saint of the city of Ica. On the main day (Sunday) of the celebration, the image is carried through the streets of the city from sunset to sunrise the following day.
|
| November |
|
Date: November 1 –2
Celebration: All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day
Place: the whole country
Description: On those days, devoted to the remembrance of the dead, people attend mass and then visit their loved ones at the cemetery. On the coast, they carry flowers and in the highlands, food to share symbolically with the “souls.”
|
| December |
|
Date: December 24
Celebration: Peruvian Christmas
Place:the whole country
Description: Christmas in Peru has taken on unique characteristics thanks to the incorporation of elements typical to each region. These are expressed in the extreme care taken with the decoration of the Nativity or manger scenes that are set up in churches and homes, dances, drama performances, typical dishes and a whole assortment of handicrafts.
Date: December 24
Celebration: Santuranticuy Fair
Place:Cusco
Description: The “Santuranticuy,” which made its appearance during colonial times, is a temporary market where image-makers and craftsmen offer a wide range of figures to brighten the Christmas feasts and accompany the manger or Nativity scenes.
Date: December 27
Celebration: Our Lady of Carmen
Place: El Guayabo y el Carmen (Chincha, Ica)
Description: During the course of this worship, dating from the colonial period, the villagers sing and dance, celebrating Our Lady of Carmen with Afro-Peruvian rhythms.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
