Day of the Cross

Day of the Cross

On Tuesday I went to a ‘Cross Party’. As I arrived at Lily’s house (for my Spanish class) there were a lot of people sitting outside a house nearby with loud music playing. When I asked Lily what was going on she said it was a party for the Day of the Cross (May 2nd). This is the day when anyone who has a cross in their house, or nearby, organises a party with food, drink and dancing. The party starts on the 2nd and goes on until the next day.

Lily told me that when the Spanish came to Peru they placed crosses on many of the religious sites of the Inca people. You see crosses placed all over the place round here – in plazas, on hills, half way up flights of steps! Also, some families have crosses in their homes. The family living near to Lily have two crosses which have been in their family for about one hundred years, given to their grandparents, I think, if I understood correctly, because of their ‘great faith’. The ‘cross parties’ are held to remember that Jesus died on the cross.

After my class Lily asked if I’d like to walk past and see the party. Actually, everyone had gone into the house so Lily asked if we could go in. She took me to see the two crosses which were on a table in a little courtyard in the middle of the house. They were ‘dressed’ in embroidered gold drapes and surrounded by flowers, pink fairy lights and the biggest candles I’ve ever seen. There were also two ‘recuerdos’ which are sort of gold embroidered banners with the family names and dates of the party – when a family hosts a religious party of some sort they get these ‘recuerdos’ made to display and keep as a souvenir. (Lily has one in her house to remember when her family hosted service for Day of the Child – 6th Jan I think.)

The people at the party were all sitting round the edge of the courtyard and another adjacent room. The room to the left was a little kitchen with tin roof, mud floor and guinea pigs running about. Some cooked guinea pigs arrived in a big bucket while we were there. The party hosts (two ladies) wore red sashes with gold embroidered writing with their names and the date. To be honest everyone looked a bit bored – a 24 hour party does seem rather long!

All week we’ve heard bangers going off and these are also something to do with the Day of the Cross.

Another thing I learnt from Lily is that the Virgin Mary is often depicted in a rather strange shape. She is drawn in religious pictures here in a sort of mountain shape, her head at the top and her dress coming down very widely. Apparently this is because the Spanish wanted to make her the substitute for the Inca Mother Earth. The indigenous people here could understand the concept of a Father and Son from their own religious stories and beliefs, but they thought there must be a mother as their own Mother Earth figure was very important. So the Spanish substituted the Virgin Mary for Mother Earth, even depicting her in this mountain shape. Lily says that this is the reason why the Virgin Mary is thought of as so important here.