Festivity: Lima Foundation Anniversary

Departament: Lima
Date: 18
Place: Lima
Description: Different civic and cultural activities by the Spanish foundation from Lima are made.


Festivity: National Marinera Contest

Departament: La Libertad
Date: 20 - 2
Place: Trujillo
Description: The club Libertad, one of the more prestige institutions in Trujillo, is in charge to organise the National Marinera Contest. In November of 1960, took place the first edition of this festival that has become an event of national importance; it includes, a series of parallel activities like the famous Celebration of the Perol, in the Club Libertad, the Festival of Peñas Criollas, the contest "Champion of Champions" of Peruvian Paso Horses, and much more.

Festivity: Virgen de la Candelaria

Departament: Puno
Date: 5
Place: Puno
Description: During 18 days faithful and dancers worship the Virgen de la Candelaria in the church of San Juan. The cult, is possibly associated with the pre-Hispanic ritual to the Mama Pacha or Mother Earth. The catholic origins of this demonstration of Andean faith, go back to the XVI century. The celebration begins nine days before, when the butlers fix the temple and organise three masses with banquets and fireworks. The central day, 2 of February, the Virgen de la Candelaria leaves the temple to cross the streets in an unimaginable frame of folkloric demonstrations.


Festivity: Carnivals

Departament: All country
Date: Variable
Description: The Cajamarca Carnival is, perhaps, the most representative of the country, having acquired very singular characteristics and a specific organisation. It is made with very typical expressions and the participation of institutions, districts, etc. The celebration lasts a month approximately, but the central days are reduced to 8. In cities like Huánuco, Ayacucho, and Abancay, the carnivals are also very colorful, with dances and parades with groups of people masked and costumed.


Festivity: Pisco Sour National Day

Departament: All the country
Date: the first Saturday of February
Description: A public institution called Conapisco is in charge of organizing this event


Festivity: Huacachina Mermaid Festival

Departament: Ica
Date: 24
Place: Ica
Description: The legend of the Huacachina is represented with shows, artisan, wine-growing and gastronomical fairs, costume dances and others.


Festivity: Verano Negro Festival

Departament: Ica
Date: Variable
Place: El Carmen - Chincha
Description: This festival starts up as a result of the ethnic essence that still stays in this zone. At El Carmen arrived slaves coming from all Africa, who conserved their own customs, which were melted and originates the "afroperuvian dance".

Festivity: Adventure Sports Festival - Lunahuana

Departament: Lima
Date: 1st week (variable)
Place: Cañete (Lima)
Description: The warm valley of Lunahuana is located only 30 minutes from San Vicente de Cañete, a city that is 150 km south of Lima. Lunahuana is a paradise for adventure sports thanks to the Cañete river that has rapids up to level 4. The festival includes river rafting, paraglide, trekking, hand-gliding, mountain bike, fishing and fishnet contests.
Once in Lunahuana it is very easy to get to the archaeological complex of Incahuasi and to Catapalla's suspension bridge. Other attractions of the area include wine tasting in the region's wineries and trying the exotic dishes prepared by local people, such as rabbit with carapulcra (potatoes stew) and guinea pigs au vin


Festivity: Vintage International Festival

Departament: Ica
Date: 9 - 11
Place: Ica
Description: The Vintage is a celebration that is made for the harvest of grapes. During the festival wine and pisco contests, rooster fights are organised and Peruvian Paso horses are shown.


Festivity: Porcon Crosses

Departament: Cajamarca
Date: Palm Sunday March 24
Place: Cajamarca
Description: Religious Festivity that is celebrated the Palm Sunday. It is very important in Cajamarca's folklore because of its originality and peculiar characteristics of the farmer of the area. During the celebration, Christ enters the town mounted on a donkey. Its main attraction constitutes the support of colorful and shining crosses of more than 2 meters of height. Each wood cross, adorned with flowers and branches of Rosemary, religious engravings and mirrors that represent the soul of the devotee, as well as metal bells that announce their arrival to the community.

Festivity: Pasion Week

Departament: All the country
Date: Variable
Place: All the country
Description: The celebration of Easter of greater fervidness in the country is made in Ayacucho. The Palm Sunday, Jesus enters the city mounted on a donkey, surrounded by hundreds of pious carrying palms and olive tree branches. On Wednesday, images of the Virgin and San Juan leave the Cathedral in procession, to be stirringly with the Nazareno in the Main Square. The Good Friday, the Lord of Santo Sepulcro quietly crosses the streets accompanied by faithful people, who take rigorous mourning and carry enormous wax candles. All the night of the Saturday of Glory, the whole population congregates at the Main Square, with the intention to receive the imposing Revived Christ at Sundays dawn, whose image will appear slowly from the Cathedral across the Plaza in its overwhelming pyramid of pure silver and to be celebrated with outbreaks of rockets and peal of bells.


Festivity: Peruvian Paso Horse Festival

Departament: Lima
Date: 16th to 24th
Place: Pachacamac
Description: The cross between Spanish and Arab horses has given birth to the Peruvian Paso Horse, whose peculiar walk was outlined as a result of its breeding in desert geographies. For 300 years, this new breed has progressively improved until developing the characteristics that have turned it today into one of the world's most beautiful and elegant horses. Through the years, the breeders called chalanes (horsemen) and artisans have enriched the art of its walk -consisting on a synchronized movement of the front and hind legs in a parallel way- which has inspired as well the peculiar steps and the elegance of the Marinera.
The harness (jato, saddle and tack) and the chalanes costume (white shirt and pants, panama hat, vicuna wool poncho, handkerchief, boots and spurs) are part of this spectacle.
This tradition has already been exported to different parts in the world and is promoted through diverse contests in coastal cities as well as in Andean towns; however the most important event is the National Peruvian Paso Horse Contest held annually in Mamacona, in the historic location of Pachacamac, 30 km south of Lima.

Festivity: Virgen de Chapi

Departament: Arequipa
Date: 1
Place: Chapi Chico, Miraflores, Charcani V, Santuario de Chapi Grande
Description: Traditional peregrination up to the Sanctuary of Chapi, about 76 km from Arequipa. Many devotee arrive walking. Is familiar that the devotee promise to arrive 3 years consecutive at the Sanctuary.


Festivity: Celebration of the Lord of Muruhuay

Departament: Arequipa
Date: 1 - 31
Place: Muruhuay (Acobamba -Tarma)
Description: Religious celebration with liturgical acts and processions, where the dance of "chonguinada" with groups of travelling is danced. Typical dishes like pachamanca are consumed.

Festivity: Sain Pedro Celebration

Departament: Lima
Date: 29th
Place: Chorrillos and Lurin
Description: The Water Festival is celebrated in different Andean towns while communal cleanings of irrigation channels take place. In the coast, Saint Pedro is the fishermen's Patron Saint and he is worshipped in the small bays of Chorrillos and Lurin, in Lima. Accompanied with aromatic substances, songs and prayers, the Saint is taken to the seashore and then embarked in the ocean for the blessing of the waters, to have a good fishing year.


Festivity: San Juan Festival

Departament: All the Amazon
Date: 23 - 25
Description: Celebrated in all the cities and towns of the Amazonia. The most colorful celebration is made in the community of San Juan (Iquitos-Loreto). The native of the forest, think that saint assures the well-being for all the year. The 23 at night, the settlers are purified in the rivers. The 24, after the mass, the bands accompany to the procession executing percussion and wind instruments. Soon it is danced to displace "humisha" (a palm loaded with gifts) with a cane-knife, and all the assistants eat the "Juanes". The 25 the celebration continues with the so-called San Juan Chico.


Festivity: Inti Raymi

Departament: Cusco
Date: 24
Place: Cusco City
Description: It is the central act of the celebrations done in Cusco during this month. It evokes the ostentatious of the religious ceremonies of the Inca Empire. The staging begins in the Qoricancha, continuing to the Main Square of the city and ending at the esplanade of Saqsayhuaman. The central most important character is the Inca. When the ceremony ends the presentations of folkloric groups begins. The concurrence is multitudinal.

Festivity: Virgen del Carmen

Departament: Cusco
Date: 16
Place: Prov Paucartambo,Prov Anta Dist. Huarocondo, Prov. Calca Dist. Pisaq.
Description: The celebrations begin with novenaries, eves, procession, blessings, war of partisans, oqaricuy. In this occasion the residents of each mentioned area make waste of a variety of dances, with colorful dance suits. In the case of Paucartambo is a good occasion to visit Tres Cruces and enjoy the sunrise.


Festivity: Independence Day / Fiestas Patrias

Departament: All the country
Date: 28-29
Description: Commemoration of the Independence of Peru. Serenades with local and folkloric music are held in different squares and parks on the night of the 27th. The dawn of the 28th is greeted with a 21-gun salute as a preview to the hoisting of the flag ceremony. The next day a Te Deum mass is celebrated in Lima's Cathedral with the attendance of the President of the Republic; the celebration ends with the famous Military Parade.

Festivity: The Pachamama Day (Mother Earth)

Departament: Cusco
Date: 1
Place: Cusco
Description: Ancestral rite within the Andean cosmovision, the mother earth occupies an important place and to her it must surrender cultured and tribute with the payment to the mother earth or "pacha mama". The ceremony begins the night of the 1 of August with the preparation and burns of offerings. The rite implies reciprocity, at the same time that cult is offered to the deity, it is forced to grant thanks to her believers.


Festivity: Arequipa Anniversary

Departament: Arequipa
Date: 15
Place: Arequipa
Description: Celebrated with serenades, parades of the friendship and fairs with spectacles, etc.


Festivity: Santa Rosa de Lima

Departament: All over the country
Date: 30
Description: Saint Rosa of Lima was a girl who lived in Lima during the 17th century. Her real name was Isabel Flores de Oliva, and her huge religious vocation turned her into a tertiary (a devoted single woman with no particular religious order). She lived a pious life at the service of the sick. Her penances to resist temptations and her kindness were well-known while she was still alive.
Since she is also venerated in the Philippines and in other parts of the continent, she was proclaimed Patron Saint of the Americas and the Philippines. Her followers make pilgrimages to her sanctuary, located in downtown Lima, all year round, seeking for miracles, specially related to healing the sick. On August 30th people drop good wish letters into the well where the saint threw her sacrifice belt's key, and visit the chapel she built by herself. Santa Rosa is the Patron Saint of the Peruvian National Police, and her fiesta is celebrated all over the country, having special emphasis in Saint Rosa de Quives, a town located in the mountains of Lima.

Festivity: Month of the tourism

Departament: Cusco
Date: All the month
Place: Cusco and Sacred Valley of the Incas
Description: Celebrated with cultural conferences, artistic exhibitions, adventure sports competitions, tourism visits, encounter of authorities, civic acts, artistic-cultural work presentation, among others.


Festivity: Festival Internacional de Primavera

Departament: La Libertad
Date: 20 - 24
Place: Trujillo
Description: In 1950, Alberto Novoa proposed to make a parade with the club of Lions of Trujillo. The director accepted and decided to do it that spring, far from imagining that with the time it would become one of the most important events of the region. Between the activities they emphasize: the election and coronation of the queens, farming exhibitions of crafts, engravings, painting and products, concerts of classic and popular music, ballet, parades fashionable, verbenas, run of bulls and Peruvian Paso Horses. The traditional parade closes the festival, with the presentation of local, regional, national and international queens in its respective allegorical cars with multicolor adornments and cheerleaders coming from United States.


Festivity: Festival of the Endless Spring

Departament: Huanuco
Date: 22 - 30
Place: Huanuco
Description: A tourist and cultural interest event, with the development of: literary-youthful recital, spring and folkloric parades, tourist excursions and strolls, trekking (long walks), mountain camping, cycling, serenade for the World-wide Day of Tourism, floral adjustments contest, election of Miss Huanuco.

Festivity: Señor de los Milagros

Departament: Lima
Date: All the month
Place: Lima
Description: This is the biggest procession in South America. It all started during the Colony when a slave from Angola painted a black Christ in the walls of a humble house in the Pachacamilla country estate, close to Lima. In spite of the numerous attempts to erase it, the image remained in the wall generating a huge devotion. During the 1746 earthquake all the neighboring buildings were destroyed; however, the wall with the black Christ image remained standing, thus consolidating its popular faith which expanded with the years. Today it is the most venerated image in the city. The main celebration revolves around a massively attended procession, one of the continent's biggest one, where thousands of followers dressed in purple habits sing and pray while accompanying the image. The faithful carry on their shoulders the 2-ton heavy portable platform for 24 hours taking it across the historical center from the temple of Las Nazarenas to the church of La Merced in the district of Barrios Altos. Several traditional dishes and sweets such as the famous Turron de Doña Pepa are prepared during this month, and a taurine fair bearing the Lord's name takes place in the Acho Bullring with the presence of renown bullfighters from all over the continent and Spain.


Festivity: Lord of Luren

Departament: Ica
Date: 2nd and 3rd week (from 1st Thursday to 3rd. Monday)
Place: Ica
Description: The devotion to the Lord of Luren, goes back to 1570 when its image became lost mysteriously in the desert, during the passage from Pisco to Ica. The image was found in a place desolate called Luren. The central day, a procession by the main streets of the city is made, from the nightfall to the following day.

Festivity: Representation of the rise of the mythic couple, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo

Departament: Puno
Date: 5
Place: Puno
Description: The Mythical couple rises from the Titicaca Lake and presentations of typical dances by the streets of city are made, with special programs.

Festivity: La Inmaculada Concepción

Departament: All the country
Date: 8
Place: Celebrations in Cusco
Description: Paucartambo, Calca Canchis, Paruro, Espinar, Chumbivilcas. This religious celebration is the one that has more roots in the people of the Andes area of Cusco department . The celebrations are with novenaries, masses, presentations of native dances. In the case of the districts of Yauri and Santo Tomas they take place typical bulls flights.


Festivity: Festival de Danza de la Tijeras

Departament: Huancavelica
Date: 20
Place: Huancavelica
Description: Clean fields, Atipanakuy (contrapunteo) and tests of body, magic and blood. This is one of the most complete manifestations of the Andean Dance.