- Peruvian celebrations
Popular celebrations are the product of every town's traditions and legends. These celebrations gather music, dances, meals and typical drinks. In addition to the religious celebrations like
Christmas , Corpus Christi orHoly Week , there are others that express thesyncretism of the indigenous beliefs with theChristian s'. An example of this kind of celebration is the "Alasitas " (an Aymara word that, according to some, means "buy me") which combines acraft s and miniatures fair with dances, meals and a mass.Amazonas Region
Los pastorcillos de Navidad
The celebration of
Christmas in Chachapoyas is unique inPeru and incomparably because of the presence of its tender and innocent protagonists: the children of the city.At the dusk of
December 24th , thechoirs of littleshepherd s start going out from the differentchurch es. They walk around the town intoningChristmas carol s. For such a reaons, two children's columns are formed and in the middle of them, the "shepherd s" and the "Three Kings", properly characterized, go.The girls are dressed with a
skirt adorned with colorfulribbon s, ablouse withspangles and ahandkerchief crossing theirbreast . Thehat with shining adornments andribbon s that hang backwards. Thehat wing is elevated in its front part. All the children are provided withtambourines andtimbrel s that they wave to the rhythm of thedance , which music is executed by the band that accompanies them. Closing this courtship goes the sacred image ofChild Jesus in a portable platform led by four girls completely dressed inwhite . When they arrive to the front door of thechurch , where the crib is, they put the sacred image ofChild Jesus in the manger between José and Maria in the middle of many gifts that theshepherd s and the Three Kings have earlier deposited. Later they continue with the singings and dances during "the vigil", until it comes the moment of the Holy Mass.
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