Major festivities during Spring

Lord of Huanca Festivity
Since the 19th century, the Sanctuary of Huanca, located in the Pachatusán mountain, province of Calca, district of San Salvador (50km from Cusco city), is one of the most important destinations for pilgrims in South America. Every year on September 14, thousands of devotees, not only Peruvian but also Bolivian, Argentinean and Chilean, go to the Sanctuary of Huanca to receive the blessing of the Lord.

History tells that in 1675 God appeared to a humble miner named Diego Quispe, who was hiding in a cave after escaping from the Yasos mine, where he suffered slavery-like work conditions. The priests of Our Lady of Mercy in Cusco heard the occurrence, and sent an artist from the famous Cusco School to paint an image of the Lord at the site where he had appeared. The lord of Huanca was painted on a rock, around which the main altar was built.

Along the way to the sanctuary, nestled half way up the mountain, numerous vendors sell religious items and desires in miniature -toy houses, cars, trucks, legal papers-, for the devotees to place at the base of the Lord's image. Alcoholic beverages are absent from the festivity, quite remarkable if we consider that alcohol plays an important role in most other Andean festivities, both pagan and religious. It is said that Lord of Huanca disapproves of all alcohol and has overturned trucks and buses carrying those who drink.

Like most pilgrimage sites in the central Andes, the Lord of Huanca is fused with the sacred, living power of the mountain, upon which he focuses his miraculous healing powers.

Señor de Los Milagros Procession
2005 Señor de los Milagros or Lord of Miracles Procession

The Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) procession, the largest in South America, dates back to the Spanish Viceroyalty, when an Angolan slave painted a dark-skinned Christ on the wall of a humble plot in the Pachacamilla ranch, near Lima. At the time a non-white Christ was considered heretic, but notwithstanding several attempts to erase it, the image resisted.

The devotion for the image boosted in 1746, when a massive earthquake demolished every building in the proximities, but not the wall.

During the whole month of October, known as the mes morado, or purple month, minor observations in honour of the patron (whose colour is purple) are celebrated. The main event occurs the 18th: a procession that counts hundreds of thousands of devotees. Dressed in purple habits, they sing and pray while accompanying the image on its 24-hour route from the Nazarenas temple to La Merced church in the Barrios Altos district.

The wooden portable platform that carries the image is completely covered with silver and gold, and weights more than a ton. It is carried out on shoulders by the loaders of the "Pachacamilla Christ Brotherhood".

Sweets and food can be purchased from vendors along the path of the procession, in particular the traditional Turrón de Doña Pepa, a soft nougat candy made almost only during October.

During October and November, the Señor de los Milagros bullfighting season takes place in the Plaza de Acho (Lima's bullring). It gathers the most prestigious bullfighters of America and Spain, who compete for the Escapulario de Oro (golden scapular).

Fiesta del Agua
Every October the people of San Pedro de Casta (province of Huarochirí, Department of Lima) celebrates the Fiesta del Agua, or Water Festival, during which the irrigation canals and ditches that carry water to the fields are cleaned. Also a celebration in honour of the Pachamama earth goddess, the canal dredging tasks take more than a week, and are accompanied by songs, dances, and various events.

San Pedro de Casta, a 4-hour ride from Lima, lies on the mountains of the Lima department, at more than 3,000 meters above sea level. Nearby is the mystical Marcahuasi, a 4-square kilometres plateau with colossal zoomorphic and anthropomorphic rock formations.

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