Munay (Love & Beauty): Stories of Life in Peru: Peru Knows How to Party: Independence Day 2013

I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that Peru LOVES to party and they do it like no other. After Peru’s Independence Day week long celebration, I’ve seen an even more extreme side to the partying.

Peru’s Independence Day is on July 28^th, but they don’t only celebrate on this day. They call it “fiestas patrias” and they celebrate for an entire week. And when I say celebrate, I mean for a whole week there are endless parades, marches, traditional dance performances, live music, dancing and drinking in the streets, bull fights, family meals, and many other things. For a week straight. Literally. Everyone has a least a week of vacation from work and school and just celebrates every moment.

My town has talked nonstop about the parties for Independence Day basically since I moved to Huallanca almost a year ago. And I thought it was weird that people talked about it so much. But now I get it. I finally understand how awesome it is and why people enjoy it so much!

The way Huallanca celebrates fiestas patrias is unique to our town because our celebration is so big. Literally thousands of people came to Huallanca to celebrate fiestas patrias; everyone who is from Huallanca and now lives somewhere else came back to celebrate as well all of their family and extended family. It was awesome and I am so glad that I was there to see the famous fiestas patrias of Huallanca because I feel like know I understand my town even better. I have a better understanding of the pride that people have for our town and for being from Huallanca and for the traditions and customs that Huallanca has. The Huallanquinos loved that their gringa was there to celebrate with them. They were so proud to share their traditions and parties with me.

There were bull fights every day which thanks to Spain is a huge tradition here in Peru. In honor of fiestas patrias, Huallanca brought in a group of matadors (the guys who wear the funny suits and fight the bulls) from Lima, one was even from Spain. Thankfully they didn't kill the bulls during the bull fights but they did draw blood to "agitate" the bulls. Even though they didn't kill the bulls, it was still sad to see them cause pain to the bulls. Speaking of bulls, one day they had a "running of the bulls" in which they released 14 bulls into the streets as everyone waited to "run" with the bulls in which everyone ended up running for their lives. I just planned to be an innocent bystander to observe until I almost got charged by a bull and took off running for my life as well.

It was so fun to celebrate the Independence of Peru alongside of the wonderful people in my community plus thousands more Peruvians. I feel so thankful to live in this beautiful and culturally rich country that I am fortunate enough to call my home!

Now I will be just like the locals, talking about how awesome fiestas patrias were, and anxiously waiting for next year to do it all again!