Peruvian Independence Day 2014 Style..

Though it was very much like last year, it was a event not to be missed: the celebrations for this years Fiestas Partias (or ‘Homeland Party’ or Peruvian Independence Day).  Started the weekend before the Independence day (on July 28th), and Andrea has posted quite a number of photos from the events, but here is a bit of my impressions:

Farol or Lanterns the Night Before..  really fun to march in the streets with little kids and fire chanting about how great Peru is.  Sandwiches and hot chocolate to follow.

 

Parade.. And the school and institution marching in front of authorities right after the flag raising.  Going to miss seeing this kind of order from elementary school kids.

This ‘parade’ was also an opportunity to dress small kids up in costumes of historical figures or the country’s president.  Some kids could barely walk but their folks had them out there contributing.

Also, found a very good summary of how Peruvians (and all of us visitors to the country) are required to drink their beers..  shared With others and often not very cold I would say, but these rules from Deborah Vacs during her Fiestas Patrias post give a good impression of how it’s done..

HOW TO DRINK BEER IN PERU

As in lots of places, drinking is a big part of the festivities for many people. Some people take swigs of hard liquor (like pisco or cañazo) but most people in Santiago drink beer together in a standard ritual I and many other volunteers refer to as the “Beer Circle”. The rules of the Beer Circle are as follows:

1. For every circle there is usually one bottle of beer and one communal glass. Sometimes if the circle gets really big there are multiple bottles and multiple glasses but the ratio of glass to bottle is always 1:1.

2. Drinking is only done from the glass – never from the bottle.

3. Each person in turn pours some beer into their cup (or has it poured for them) passes the bottle to the next person in the circle and raises the cup to the circle before drinking.

4. After drinking each person empties out the foam/backwash onto the ground before passing the cup to the next person.

5. In general, if you are in the circle you cannot pass on the beer. My strategy when I don’t want to drink anymore is to pour very little into my cup and throw most of it away without drinking. I know this is wasting beer but I’ve never seen anyone react negatively to this as they do when I refuse more beer.