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For 18 days (from February 01 to February 18), the highland town
of Puno, nestled on the shores of Lake Titicaca at an altitude
of 3,870 meters above sea level, is becomes the Folk Capital
of the Americas.
The festival gathers more than 200 groups of musicians and
dancers to celebrate the Mamacha Candelaria. 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.
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 dance of the demons, 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 dancers, blowing zampoña
pan-pipes 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. |
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