Christmas and New Year in Peru

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in Arequipa, staying with our good friend Paul (also with Latin Link) but were around Cusco enough before and after Christmas Day to get a feel of how Cusquenians celebrate Christmas. The most marked difference compared to Christmas in the UK was that no one seemed to think much about Christmas until the middle of December! That was when decorations and Christmas trees appeared in the shops, streets and plazas and Christmas promotions appeared in the shops. (Lily, our language teacher, thinks that they have so many fiestas that they can’t start thinking about Christmas too early as they are still celebrating other things!)

We went out with the boys about a week before Christmas Day to see the Christmas lights in the Plaza de Armas - nativity animals in lights, plus stars and angels. Then we went down the road to see a giant nativity scene, and also met Father Christmas on the way.

Nativity scenes are ‘big’ here, in both senses of the word. Every household seems to have one and there are special markets in the week or so before Christmas selling stables, figures and special mosses and grasses. I saw one such market in the plaza in front of the Belen church, but the biggest one is Santurantikuy, (the buying of the saints), held in the Plaza de Armas on the 24th December.

On December 24th, hundreds of artisans come to Cusco from the surrounding area to lay their blankets (mantas) on the pavements - a custom in traditional Andean fairs - and sell carved Nativity handicrafts. Held in Cusco’s Plaza de Armas, Santuranticuy is a temporary market whose origins go back to the days of the Spanish Vice-royalty. Today it’s one of the largest arts-and-crafts fairs in the country. The central figure of the Christmas fair is the Niño Manuelito, the Andean version of the newborn Jesus. Besides the baby Manuelito, you’ll find the other Nativity figures, all with an Andean touch, as well as saint’s images. Although the fair started as a Christmas specific market, over the years it expanded to include other goods.

Families will keep their nativity scenes until the until la Bajada de los Reyes (the arrival of the three wise men) on January 6. You can go from church to church in the week preceding Christmas to see the different nacimientos (nativity scenes) and also hear church choirs.

In Cusco, Christmas Eve (known as Noche Buena) is when families get together and celebrate and exchange gifts. Well off families eat turkey, while for many others chicken suffices. Panetón (a cake/bread filled with fruits) is very popular as are drinks of hot chocolate.

In Arequipa, our friend Paul was invited out in the evening of Christmas Eve for a traditional meal with a family. After huge numbers of loud fireworks between 11.30pm and 12.15am, the family sat down to eat and exchange a few gifts. This is the main celebration while Christmas Day is for sleeping! Unfortunately for Paul, our boys were up at 6am to open their presents!

We then had our main Christmas celebration with others from Latin Link, singing some carols, opening a few presents, and eating a fairly traditional Christmas lunch, including a two little Christmas puddings sent from England! Boxing Day does not exist in Peru and most people go back to work.

For more Christmas photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35782&l=2021d&id=702530766

A distinct aspect of Christmas in Peru is the "chocolatada" where better off people or organisations offer a bit of Christmas cheer to poor children or pensioners in the week or two preceeding Christmas Day. Chocolatadas are often organised by churches, businesses or shops and are characterised by giving a cup of hot chocolate, some bread or biscocho (a sweet bread with dried fruits inside), some sweets or maybe a toy. We helped out at a chocolatada organised by our pastors for the children of the poor community just below their ‘mountain’ house. We played games with the children and they participated in the Christmas story with actions and animal noises. Mary (wife of our pastor) gave a little talk and then they all received hot chocolate, sweet bread and a little bracelet.

More photos at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34457&l=ed1b2&id=702530766

New Year

We spent New Year’s Eve with our good friends David and Hannah and their children Shannon (6) and Jonah (4) (the family that we flew with when we all first came out here last February). We decided to do a ‘sleepover’ so that the kids could have fun together and so that noone had to worry about babysitters. The kids had their tea first and then the adults had a New Year’s Eve meal together – probably the first time we’ve been able to sit down as just the four of us and have a decent conversation!

We had heard about various traditions associated with New Year in Peru so were interested to see which we would observe. Earlier in the day we had been in the El Molino market (the biggest market in Cusco where you can buy anything) and seen a large number of stalls selling yellow underwear, yellow flowers and lots of fireworks.

Here’s some information I found on the web about New Year in Cusco:

The New Year festival in Peru is largely associated with drinking and having lots of fun with your friends. However, there are a number of rich customs associated with New Year that are intended to bring good luck. In general, in Peru people are more connected with the spiritual, the mystic and the superstitious than we are in the west… and they do believe in miracles!

Customs associated with the New Year are intended to bring good luck- a popular tradition is to dress up a doll - (or effigy) with old clothes and then burn it, which signifies getting rid of the old, and making a new start. New clothes are also popular representation of the new, and markets catering to this idea spring up in the streets of Cusco in the days before New Year. If you haven't got new clothes, underwear is a very popular alternative. The colour of your underwear is also important - with most popular yellow (for happiness and luck) followed by red (for love) or green (for money).

If you want to travel in the upcoming year, you should take a suitcase or briefcase and carry it around the block or Plaza de Armas on New Year's Eve. Eating of grapes as the clock strikes 12 is also a popular way of bringing luck - one grape for each of the 12 upcoming months.


We witnessed both of these customs in our street! At midnight, there were huge amounts of fireworks and bangers so we went outside to have a look. We met our neighbours, a retired couple, who told us they were just leaving to go travelling, which we thought a slightly unusual time to go. As they came out with their cases, we asked them where they were going, to which they replied 'just around the block'!! It turned our that they want to go to Europe this year and so they were following the custom of taking their cases and going on a 'symbolic' trip in the hope that it will become a reality. We had a laugh with them when they returned about 5 minutes later, asking them whether they'd had a nice time! They then brought us 12 grapes, the idea being that you eat them and make a wish with each. They then sprinkled yellow confetti along the front of their house, also to bring good fortune. As we walked around the neighbourhood on New Year's Day, many houses had yellow confetti around the perimeter.