Virgin of Candelaria Feast
Fiesta de la Virgen de la Candelaria
Faith in the folk capital of the Americas
Color - dance - music - dresses - masks and lovely people
The Feast in honor of Virgin of Candelaria, patron of the city of
Puno, is made
in the first fortnight of February each year, and represents the largest and
most important cultural event, musical and dancing by Peru, and one of the three
most significant in South America along with Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the Carnaval de Oruro, in the amount of symbols and artistic and cultural
manifestations of the cultures themselves Quechua, Aymara and mixed by Highlands
Andean and the volume of people directly and indirectly involved in its
realization.
The core of the festival is the musical and dance expression and
organized by the Regional Federation of Folklore and Culture of Puno, calling
the presence of more than 150 sets, between native dances that come from the
communities and biases of Puno, and sets of dances organized in different
districts of the City of Puno, mostly known as 'dances with costumes", which
directly involved 50 thousand dancers and some 15 thousand musicians, adding to
its indirect stake about 25 thousand people including directors, sponsorships,
embroiderers, artisans in the making of masks, boots and shoes, bells and other
items. For the first
nine days, the mayordomos (those in charge of organizing the festivities),
decorate the church and pay for Mass, banquets and fireworks displays.
This party is
uninterruptedly celebrated since 1960. It convokes many communities and dance
groups of the whole south area of Peru and foreign delegations who are presented
in big artistic competitions arriving with their own musical groups and
dramatize in beautiful choreographs in parades by the streets and contest dance
in the Torres Belón stadium of Puno.
Celebration and
activities
This festival is presented the following times: trials, novenas, albs
festive candles entry, entry k'apos, eve, February 2, eighth, veneration,
cacharpari.
The feast of the "Virgen
de la Candelaria" begins on the eve of the 2nd of February and last until the
first Sunday after that day, and ends one week after continuing with the
celebration of the Carnivals. On February 9th the folklore parade is celebrated.
The groups, which paraded days before, on the 2nd, now return for a procession
before the Virgin, who will gaze them from the atrium of the church. Then, folk
groups set off through the city, dancing tirelessly until sunset. At the end of
the week the feast ends in the cemetery, for the paying of respects of the dead.
The statue of the Virgin
is small, and it represents a virgin of very white complexion and blushed
cheeks. This Virgin is harbored in the Church of San Juan El Bautista.
Its origin is related with
the beginnings of the cult to the "Virgen de la Candelaria" (Candelaria Virgin)
or "Virgen de Socavón" (Virgin of the Tunnel) in Bolivia. Is much venerated in
Puno and Oruro, Bolivia.
In the afternoon's central
day, the virgin statue leaves the church, and more than forty groups attired in
the costumes and masks classic in the culture of altiplano dance, join crowd.
Without doubt the outstanding groups are the Diablada, the Morenada, the Waka
Waka, the Llamerada, the Tuntuna, the Caporal King, the Kallahuallas, and the
Sikuri groups.
On the main day, February
2, the virgin is led through the city in a colorful procession comprising
priests, altar boys, the faithful, Christians and pagans carefully maintaining
the hierarchy. This is the moment when the troupes of musicians and dancers take
the scene, performing and dancing throughout the city.
The festival is linked to
the pre-Hispanic agricultural cycles of sowing and harvesting, as well as mining
activities in the region. It is the result of a blend of respectful Aymara
gaiety and ancestral Quechua seriousness.
The dancers, blowing
zampoña panpipes and clad in spectacular costumes and outlandish masks, make
their offerings to the earth goddess Pachamama. The most impressive masks, for
their terrifying aspect, are those of the deer fitted with long twisted horns
similar to the Devil, and Jacancho, the god of minerals.
During the farewell, or
cacharpari, the dancers who fill the streets finally head to the cemetery to
render homage to the dead.
La
Diablada
The Dance of the Devils, or "diablada", the main dance of the festival, was
allegedly dreamed up by a group of miners trapped down a mine who, in their
desperation, resigned their souls to the Virgen de la Candelaria.
The "diablada" dance is
born with the legend of some miners trapped in a collapse of a mine; they saw an
army of demons that took them to hell illuminated with fire flames. The miners
commended to the Virgin who kept them with life producing their rescue.
From that time all the
miners called her their landlady and protector, and she was called the Virgin of
the Candela or Candelaria.
The "diablada" is the
dramatization of this legend, the fight among the good and bad, which is
presided by an archangel that dominates the demons that are accompanied by the "chinasupay"
(the devil's woman), in the processions of the feast. The fantasy clothes worn
during this dramatization are a masterpiece.
Candelaria Feast 2011
January 30th
XLVII Native Dance Contest
February 1st
06:00 am Dawn mass - Enter
the kappo dancer and ceremony to Pachamama
All day: Dancer groups in front to church
February 2nd
Central Day
09:00 am Mass in the
Cathedral
02:00 pm Civic ceremony with local authorities and procession of Virgin
of Candelaria and dancer groups
February 3 to 6
Festival "segunda novena"
Music and dancer with light dresses
February 5th
Election and coronation of
Queen of Folklore
04:00 Dawn feast - Alferado de la Octava - Dancer groups
At night Feast, dancer groups and fireworks
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