Comprehensive list of holidays, festivals and events around Bolivia. Carnaval, Gran Poder, Alasitas, Pujllay, Phujllay, All Saints Day, Chutillos, Ch'utillos, Urqupina, Urkupina, Virgen de Guadalupe.
Date | Holiday | Festival | Events | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
January 1 | New Year | National | ||
January 24 | Alasitas | La Paz | ||
February 2 | Virgen de la Candelaria | Copacabana | ||
February 10 | Local Holiday | Oruro | ||
February or March | Carnaval and La Diablada | Oruro | ||
February or March | Carnaval del Oriente | Santa Cruz | ||
February or March | Corso de Corsos | Cochabamba | ||
Second Sunday in March | Pujllay | Tarabuco | ||
March 23 | Sea Day | National | ||
March or April | Good Friday and Easter | National | ||
April 15 | Local Holiday | Tarija | ||
Last Weekend in April | Feria Internacional de Cochabamba | Cochabamba | ||
April | Theater International Festival | Santa Cruz | ||
May 1 | Labor Day | National | ||
May 2-4 | Fiesta de la Cruz - Tinku | Macha | ||
First Weekend in May | Santa Vera Cruz Tatala | Cochabamba | ||
May 25 | Local Holiday | Chuquisaca | ||
May | Museums Free Entrance at Night | La Paz | ||
May or June | Corpus Christi | National | ||
Late May or early June | El Gran Poder | La Paz | ||
June 21 | Andean New Year | National | ||
July 16 | Local Holiday | La Paz | ||
July 25 | Santiago de Toro Toro | Toro Toro | ||
July 31 | Santo Patron de Moxos | San Ignacio de Moxos | ||
July | Feria Exposiciones La Paz | La Paz | ||
Last Weekend in July | Entrada Universitaria La Paz | La Paz | ||
First Week in August | Feria Internacional del Libro | La Paz | ||
August 5 | Virgen de Copacabana | Copacabana | ||
August 6 | Independence Day | National | ||
August 10 - 13 | San Lorenzo | San Lorenzo | ||
August 15 - 18 | Virgen de Urcupiña | Quillacollo | ||
Last Weekend in August | Chutillos | Potosí | ||
First Weekend in September | San Roque | Tarija | ||
First Weekend in September | Virgen de Guadalupe | Sucre | ||
September 14 | Local Holiday | Cochabamba | ||
September 24 | Local Holiday | Santa Cruz and Pando | ||
Last Weekend in September | Feria Internacional de Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz | ||
Last Wekkend in October | Feria Internacional de La Paz FIPAZ | La Paz | ||
November 1 | All Saints Day | National | ||
November 2 | All Souls Day | National | ||
November 10 | Local Holiday | Potosi | ||
November 18 | Local Holiday | Beni | ||
December 25 | Christmas Day | National |
This is a colourful, happy event tinged with poignancy. At the end of January the streets in the centre of La Paz fill with people from the city and the countryside, many of them in traditional dress, eagerly buying finely-crafted miniatures from street stalls and vendors. The figures represent material goods that the people aspire to own. It might be a tiny automobile or a bag of cement to represent a new home. A miniature passport or postage stamp might secure a dream of travel and tiny banknotes might bring wealth. One of the most popular figurine is Ekeko, “The God of Abundance”, a popular, generous and all encompassing divinity. At the end of frenzied buying and selling there is a procession to visit the Yatiri, a wizard who blesses all the objects.
The festival of the Virgen de la Candelaria, in many images, is celebrated on February 2 in various Hispanic Catholic countries, including Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay.
The celebrations in Peru and Bolivia are centered around Lake Titicaca, in Puno and the small village of Copacabana. In Bolivia, the Virgen is also known as the Dark Virgin of the Lake, and the Patroness Of Bolivia. She is revered for a series of miracles, recounted in Nuestra Señora de Copacabana and has another festival on August 5. Normally, Copacabana is a quiet, rural village with fishing and agriculture the mainstays. However, the week before and the day of the fiesta, the village changes.
There are parades, colorful costumes, music and a lot of drinking and celebrating. New vehicles are brought in from all over Bolivia to be blessed with beer. People gather for days ahead to pray and to celebrate in a mixture of Catholic and native religions. Bolivian celebrants believe the Virgen prefers to stay inside the Basilica erected in her honor. When taken outside, there is a risk of storm or other calamity.
Say Carnaval and what images come to mind? Fantastically and scantily garbed dancers, pounding samba rhythms, parades, incessant revelry? Carnaval de Oruro, Bolivia?
In Bolivia, Oruro, Santa Cruz, Tarija and La Paz hold carnavals but the carnaval in Oruro,is the most famous. It takes place for the eight days preceeding Ash Wednesday. Unlike carnaval in Rio where the escolas de samba choose a new theme each year, carnaval in Oruro always begins with the diablada or devil dance. The diablada is a centuries-old ritual surviving unchanged from colonial days.
Next are hundreds of devils in monstrous costumes. The heavy masks have horns bulging eyes fangs long hair and in contrast to the frightening masks the devils wear sparkling breastplates silk embroidered shawls and golden spurs. Between the devils groups of dancers dressed as monkeys pumas and insects caper to the music from brass bands, or pipers or drummers. The noise is loud and frenzied.
Out of the devil dancers comes China Supay, the Devil's wife, who dances a seductive dance to entice the Archangel Michael. Around her dance the members of local workers unions, each carrying a small symbol of their union such as pickaxes or shovels. Dancers dressed as Incas with condor headdresses and suns and moons on their chests dance along with dancers dressed as the black slaves imported by the Spaniards to work in the silver mines.
Family members led by the matriarchs in yellow dresses appear in order: first the husbands dressed in red, next come the daughters in green, followed by the sons in blue. The families dance their way to the football stadium where the next part of the celebrations takes place.
Two plays begun, as medieval mystery plays, are enacted. The first portrays the Conquest by the Spanish conquistadores. The second is the triumph of the Archangel Michael as he defeats the devils and the Seven Deadly Sins with his flaming sword. The results of the battle are announced the Patron Saint of the Miners the Virgen del Socavon and the dancers sing a Quecha hymn.
Although the references to the Spanish conquest and the downtrodden state of the Bolivian peasants are very clear, this festival is based on the pre-Colonial ceremony of giving thanks to the earth-mother Pachamama. It commemorates the struggles of good and evil and the early Catholic priests allowed it to continue with a Christian overlay in an effort to pacify the local natives.
The celebration of carnaval continues for days as the diablada dancers break into smaller groups and continue dancing around huge bonfires. Onlookers join the procession at any point and with the consumption of strong Bolivian beer and the very potent chicha made from fermented cereals and corn they get rowdy. Many sleep in doorways or where they fall until they awake and continue celebrating. If you plan to be in Oruro or any of the towns celebrating carnaval, follow the basic safety precautions:
Reflects the joyful spirit of the people of Santa Cruz. Begins one month prior to the holidays, 'precarnavaleras' involving all the groups led by their Queen youth. A week before the carnival takes place on minicorso which takes place in the proclamation of the sovereign's annual Carnival.
From late afternoon of Saturday to dawn Sunday of the carnival takes place in the stunning Corso that 'jump' around 300 groups. They roam the city streets to the beat of bands and 'tamborita'. During the tour the visitor can admire a framework luxury overflowing in beautiful and colorful fantasies, impressive floats carrying the queens, also perceive the attempt to rescue the regional motifs and respect the environment.
The show reaches its maximum splendor when the Santa Cruz carnival queen with all his court constituted by members of the troupe crowning.
This holiday the women is the main protagonist because, when fully dressed, makes choosing their own partner, flirting and dancing inviting men who attend these parties. The public can see that the entry of the group is divided into three folk: regional, national and international levels.
Also participate in this event Joint typical among which are those of the Chiquitanía entering the accompaniment of drums are chovenas (Eastern rhythm).
Frenzy continues on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, days in which people dance and enjoy themselves in the streets of the city playing with water, paint and foam, living moments of total joy.
One week later on Carnaval period is celebrated in Cochabamba El Corso de Corsos, with a mixture of dances of all Bolivia.
The Pujllay or Game begins with a Catholic mass in Quechua language it stops then to continue with the party and the rejoicing for the victory of the Battle of Jumbata in a parade of nonpareil coloring, the peasants move to the place where the Pucara is and they dance in circles to its surroundings to the they are of the Tokoros, Pinquillos, Spurs, Bells and Drummers.
The Pucara that consists on a support or stairway covered with great variety of agricultural products, besides drinks, breads and others taken place by the peasants of the region.
In Bolivia, known as Sea Day an annual event which recalls the loss of Litoral department because of the Pacific War in favor of Chile in the nineteenth century. Held every March 23 with a ceremony at the Plaza Abaroa center in honor of Eduardo Abaroa, the city of La Paz with the participation of the nation's president, Evo Morales today, as well as nationally is remembered with different acts.
Holy Week in Christianity is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter. It includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) and Good Friday, and lasts from Palm Sunday (or in the Eastern, Lazarus Saturday) until, but not including, Easter Sunday, as Easter Sunday is the first day of the new season of The Great Fifty Days. It commemorates the last week of the earthly life of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels.
Holy Week in the Christian year is the week immediately before Easter. The earliest catholic allusion to the custom of marking this week as a whole with special observances is to be found in the Apostolical Constitutions (v. 18, 19), dating from the latter half of the 3rd century and 4th century. In this text, abstinence from flesh is commanded for all the days, while for the Friday and Sunday an absolute fast is commanded. Dionysius Alexandrinus in his canonical epistle (AD 260), refers to the 91 fasting days implying that the observance of them had already become an established usage in his time.
Feria Internacional de Cochabamba at Alalay Area in Cochabamba.
Theater International Festival in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
If you are traveling in Latin America on the first day of May, you can expect to find banks, government offices, stores, post offices and businesses closed for the day as people celebrate the Día Internacional Del Trabajo with parades, demonstrations and other symbols of solidarity with the worker.
Bolivia celebrated Día Internacional del Trabajo for the first time on May 1, 1936. Day of the Worker, or May Day, had already been established in Europe, and would shortly sweep across the Latin American countries.
The communist and socialist countries embraced the day, and over time, May Day became associated with those political systems in many non-English speaking countries.
In Paris in 1889 the International Working Association of Men(the First International) declared May 1st an international working class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag became the symbol of the blood of working class martyrs in their battle for workers rights.
The Origins And Traditions Of Mayday
Who were the Haymarket Martyrs? They are all but ignored in the history of the United States, who moved the May Day labor celebrations to September. May Day: what happened to the radical workers holiday? The first Monday in September is now the Labor Day holiday, but it has very little to do with the reason for a working man's holiday. This history is detailed in May Day - the Real Labor Day.
Long before May Day, The Workers' Day, born in the struggle for the eight-hour day came to be, the first of May was a traditional day of feasting, celebrating spring, fertility, romance and more.
The Pagan Origins of May Day asks Why did the Labour Movement choose May Day as International Labour Day? It's more that May Day chose the Labour Movement. Unlike Easter, Whitsun or Christmas, May Day is the one festival of the year for which there is no significant church service. Because of this it has always been a strong secular festival, particularly among working people who in previous centuries would take the day off to celebrate it as a holiday, often clandestinely without the support of their employer. It was a popular custom, in the proper sense of the word - a people's day - so it was naturally identified with the Labour and socialist movements and by the twentieth century it was firmly rooted as part of the socialist calendar.
So now you know why everything shuts down on May 1. It is a good idea to play it safe that day and stay away from parades and rallies that might prove explosive.
Tinku, an Andean tradition, began as a form of ritualistic combat. It is native to the northern region of Potosí in Bolivia. In the language of Quechua, the word “tinku” means encounter. In the language of Aymara it means “physical attack.”[1] During this ritual, men and women from different communities will meet and begin the festivities by dancing. The women will then form circles and begin chanting while the men proceed to fight each other; rarely the women will join in the fighting as well. Large tinkus are held in Potosí during the first few weeks of May.
The Andean tradition began with the indigenous belief in Pachamama, or Mother Nature. The combat is in praise of Pachamama, and any blood shed throughout the fighting is considered a sacrifice, in hopes of a fruitful harvest and fertility. Because of the violent nature of the tradition there have been fatalities, but each death is considered a sacrifice which brings forth life, and a donation to the land that fertilizes it.[2] The brawls are also considered a means of release of frustration and anger between the separate communities. Tinkus usually last two to three days.[3] During this time, participants will stop every now and then to eat, sleep, or drink.
Prosperity festival at Valle Hermoso Area in Cochabamba. Colourful festival with dances, food, music and drinks.
One night in La Paz, all museums opens their doors fro free. This is an event witj many people walking from one museum to another and it is free.
Corpus Christi (Latin for Body of Christ) is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in the life of Jesus. Instead it celebrates the Body and Blood of Christ really present in the Eucharist. Its date is the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, but where the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is not a Holyday of Obligation, it is assigned to the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity as its proper day.
At the end of the Mass, it is customary ìn many places to have a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
The merging of pre-Columbian religions and the Roman Catholic faith created a number of religious observations, including the Fiesta del Gran Poder celebrated primarily in La Paz, Bolivia. The event began in the late 1930's with a small number of dancers and is today a huge event.
The festival centers around the devotion to Christ as the second person in the Holy Trinity based on an anonymous painting of the Trinity dating from the early XVII century. The three entities were painted withIndian or mestizo features. Though the Catholic church had forbidden human representations of the Holy Trinity, a young novice named Genoveva Carrión took it with her when she entered the Monasterio de la Purísima Concepción. When the religious order downsized, the painting found its way into different lay hands, finally ending up with Plácido López who lived in the barrio Chijini in la Paz.
A small chapel was built to honor the Holy Trinity and then Bishop Augsto Scheifert direct two not-quite-expert artists to paint over the two side figures. They did so, but one, wanting to retouch the eyes, came back one night. When the remaining figure moved its head, the artist fled, but many favors or miracles were attributed to the Christ figure. Devotion grew and in 1939 the chapel was officially named Iglesia Parroquial del Gran Poder.
In the years since, the festival of El Gran Poder has grown into an international celebration. Parades and processions with the dark figure of the Christ (see photo), music and costumed dancers honoring cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Of these, La Morenada is the most famous.
Held annually at the beginning of June, the Fiesta del Gran Poder is La Paz's biggest street party. Copious amount of local beers and food are consumed. Visitors wanting a place to stay during the celebrations make advance reservations.
The Andean New Year begins at june 21st, with the winter solistice or starts of closing of the sun to earth and new agricultural cycle. The major celebration helds in Tiwanaku near to La Paz.
En Torotoro, un aldea grande, situada en la provincia Charcas, al norte del departamento de Potosi-Bolivia, el 25 de julio, varias comunidades esparcidas en esta insólita región, se reúnen para los festejos de San Santiago El Mayor.
Comparsas de nativos, lujosamente ataviados, llegan al pueblo acompañados por la más pura música andina, jecutada en aerófonos (jula - julas) y charangos, instrumento que tiene 5 pares de cuerdas y una pequeña caja de resonancia. Aunque el charango denota en su concepción nítida influencia europea, es, en sí mismo, un instrumento inventado por los músicos nativos. Del charango nacen maravillosas melodías y poemas musicales excelsos.
Sin temor al equívoco se puede afirmar que la más pura música andina se conserva en el norte del departamento de Potosí.
En Torotoro, (así como en Macha, Pocoata, Pujro, etc; poblaciones del norte de Potosí), se dan cita los pueblos regionales para relizar el Tinku (palabra queschwa: duelo o encuentro) tradición que se trasnporta desde la precolonia a la actualidad. Entre los pueblos agricultores se dieron, y todavías se producen, litigios por el agua de riego, por las de dehesas o, incluso por el uso de la tierra. Seguramente -en el pasado- las devergencias concluían en cruentas guerras entre los comuneros.
Estas lides que llevaban consigo derramamiento estéril de sangre, fueron resueltas por los hombres de los valles centrales del actual Bolivia, acudiendo a una forma de juicio de Dios, consistente en que las comunidades nombraban paladines para que solo elllos. -en representación de la colectividad- tuviesen un duelo, cuyo ganador conseguían -para su comunidad- la imposisión de los derechos reclamados. Los vencidos acataban el resultaado del Tinku, que solo era temporal, porque un nuevo encuentro podía alterar el resultado anterior.
En la actualidad el Tinku, solo tiene en estas poblaciones, y algunas del Departamento de Cochabamba, carácter simbólico y de conservación de las tradiciones. El Tinku, en el que hombres de una aldea se enfrentan a los de otra a golpes de puño y latigazos, se lo ofrece al o los santos, en las fiestas católicas.
Los primeros grupos humanos, afincados en la cuenca amazónica, estaban constituidos por pescadores y cazadores que, en los ríos encontraron una fauna ictiológica riquísima y, en las llanuras, rebaños de cérvidos, piaras de cerdos salvajes, y varias otras especies de animales. Pero... las tierras de esta vasta región -aparentemente fértiles- están conformadas por mantas de arena y lutitas aluvionales del cuaternario, que se asientan sobre densos estratos de arcillas impermeables, añadiéndose el hecho de que -en la mayor parte de la sabana- el declive es de solo un metro en 10 Km. Tierras impermeables y con escaso declive, prácticamente no tienen suficiente drenaje, dando como resultante el anegamiento de extensas áreas cuando llegan las lluvias del verano. Sin embargo, cuando los grupos humanos lograron su sedentarización definitiva, en base a la agricultura, lo hicieron en tierras en los que tuvieron que fabricar terrenos de labranza, generando, a su vez, la más alta tecnología agrícola de su momento con la erección de plataformas junto a las que -en paralelo- hicieron grandes zanjas-diques, en las que, en contrario a nuestra lógica, estancaron el agua. En los trópicos -casi como si fuera producto de generación espontánea- la vida vegetal aprovecha cualquier medio para asociarse: en el agua detenida prosperan rápidamente plantas acuáticas que, en muy poco tiempo, forman una espesa alfombra (tarope) que quita de la vista el líquido en el que medran. También junto con el fluido de las crecientes, llegan peces, crustáceos, moluscos, batracios, insectos, etc. que hacían colonias en el agua embalsada. cuando la vida bullía en los zanjones, el inteligente hombre practicaba un orificio en la parte baja de la pared del dique para que el líquido se escurra lentamente dando lugar a que la alfombra vegetal descienda hasta el lecho del dique donde, además, quedaban atrapado los seres vivos. La putrefacción de los organismos producía ácido húmico y otros nutrientes que, luego, se esparcían sobre los terraplenes.
Este ingenioso artificio permitió a los hombres asentados en las llanuras de Moxos (Dpto. de Beni-Bolivia), crear ad perpetuam nutrientes orgánicos con cuya ayuda pudo decuplicar sus cosechas de maíz, calabazas, yuca o mandioca, maní, ajíes, frijoles o algodón. No todo queda en lo dicho: la cultura moxeña levantó unas 20.000 islas artificiales (mounds), sobre las que el hombre hizo sus viviendas. Unió sus islas con terraplenes que cumplían una doble función: a) permitir el tránsito de un mound a otro y b) conducir el agua hacia donde ellos deseaban. Completando esta gigantesca tarea unieron las arterias fluviales, con canales navegables. La alta cultura moxeña -verdadera maestra en el dominio de la ingeniería hidráulica- por causas no suficientemente bien aclaradas, se extinguió entre los siglos XI al XII, de nuestra era.
La región de las llanuras, salpicadas de tupidos bosques, fué habitada -después del derrumbe de la gran cultura- por varias tribus selvícolas en cuya memoria apenas quedaron vago recuerdos de su ancestro. A pesar de ello conservaron resabios de su concepción religiosa. Si volcamos la mirada hacia San Ignacio de Moxos, donde los jesuitas fundaron una de sus primeras misiones evangelizadoras, advertiremos que en las fiestas religiosas cristianas, que los nativos celebran con devoción, se hace patente un profundo sincretismo religioso. En esta fiestas se presentan comunidades luciendo coloridas vestimentas y vistosos disfraces.
Si detenemos nuestra atención en los grupos de danzarines y, singularmente, en los atuendos que hacen gala reparamos que -en su mayoría- representan animales propios de la región, demostrando que sus antiguos cultos totémicos aún mantienen vigencia. A estos disfraces se añade la representación del Sol y de la Luna, deidades claramente asumidas por los pueblos agricultores pero, nítidamente contrarias a la filosofía cristiana. Los conjuntos de macheteros, con su vistoso tocado de plumas de paraba, vestidos con camijetas, una suerte de saya blanca tejida por las comunidades en telares verticales; que llevan en la mano un machete de maderra, simbolizanuna danza guerrera ancestral, por supuesto no cristiana.
En un medio donde el jaguar acecha mimetizado entre el follaje para dar el salto sobre el hombre; allí donde ponzañosas serpientes pueden inocular tósigos letales; en sitios donde los saurios (caimanes) y las anacondas (sicuríes) aguardan a los incautos, el temor cobran formas reales. Las supersticiones envuelven a las comunidades, como aquella anunciada por el estridente gua...jo...jo!, triste lamento de un búho que cuando llora o canta cerca a la aldea anuncia muerte o calamidad.
Ah, pero los hombres asumen -también como propia- la religión llegada con la conquista europea; la sienten y se compenetran de ella y vibran en sus espíritus como lo hacen los tubos de sus aerófonos nativos, entre los que sobresale el bajón del que manan notas graves y monótonas; si, sus alamas treman al paso del arco sobre las cuerdasm de los violines, fabricados por ellos, pero adoptados de los curas misioneros. La música de sus Taquiraris se hace rítmica en los taambores o en las tobillerashechas con uñas de anta, que a cada paso del danzante marcan el compás.
Las plumas de parabas, sujetadas en abanico sobre las testas de los macheteros, son como el toque mágico de la madre naturaleza que engalana a sus hijos con colores salvajemente bellos. Esas plumas de piyo (avestruz) que cuelgan de la cintura de los Ichiñisiris traen a la memoria hombres desnudosque, en su desnudez, se sienten vestidos si solo están adornados.
La EXPO LA PAZ es una feria multisectorial de exposición y venta de productos y servicios, en la que expondrán los más destacados productores de la industria, agroindustria, tecnología, servicios y artesanía de Bolivia e invitados de países del exterior.
La mayor expresión juvenil boliviana para rescatar y preservar la música y danza del folklore de Bolivia. Cada año entre Julio y Agosto (fecha movible) recorre desde las inmediaciones de la estación de ferrocarriles y la Av. Montes hasta la la Av. Simón Bolivar.
La entrada se inicia a las 8:30 de la mañana para terminar pasada la medianoche. Alrededor de 50 comparsas, la mayor parte conformada por estudiantes universitarios, cada carrera tiene sus representantes, las de mayor número tienen hasta 3 danzas principales de las que se puede apreciar: Los Suri Sikuris, Salaque, Tinku, Doctorcitos y como es natural Morenada, Diablada y Caporales. Cada danza tiene un vestuario determinado, instrumentos utilizados, se aprecian conjuntos de bandas, así también grupos autóctonos.
Decenas de graderías de madera o metal que se arman en el trayecto la noche antes de la entrada. Existe un palco oficial. La entrada universitaria nació en dos o tres conjuntos de la carrera de Turismo, hoy es el mayor acontecimiento folklórico donde se aprecian máscaras, hermosas mujeres que lucen su juventud.
Como Patrimonio Cultural Intangible de la ciudad de La Paz, la Feria Internacional del Libro reune a mas de un centenar de expositores en el campo ferial de Següencoma. La Feria organizada por la Cámara Departamental del Libro acoge no sólo a los llamados best sellers de edición comercial, sino también a los libros artesanales, independientes y alternativos, que hallan sus canales propios de distribución.
A religios festival for the virgin of the snow. Mass, folkloric dancing and processions. 5th - 6th Virgen de Copacabana - Copacabana (La Paz).
Celebration for the Virgin of Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Dancing, processions, folkloric displays.
August 6th of 1825 Bolivia gets the independence from Spain. This national holiday is celebrated with parades and verbains at night.
San Lorenzo está ubicado a 15 km al norte de la ciudad de Tarija. Se caracteriza por su arquitectura colonial: casonas señoriales provistas de hermosos balcones. Está enteramente asfaltado, tiene un bar restaurante cultural, un mercado, una linda capilla, museos y está rodeado por lecherías.
Si cae el 10 de agosto (fiesta de San Lorenzo) por el pueblo, podrá degustar y disfrutar de su tradicional licor de leche y de sus alegres danzas típicas.
Festival in Quillacollo (Cochabamba). One of the most important religious festivals in Cochabamba. It is a colorful & religious festival with a large mass, folkloric dancing, processions, typical food and the sale of miniature handicrafts.
The Chutillos festival in Potosi is definitely worth it. Especially the first day with the authentic dances and costumes is marvelous.
Festivals celebrated in Viacha (La Paz), Sucre (Chuquisaca) and Valle Grande (Santa Cruz), but by far in Sucre is the biggest.
A religious festival in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Folkloric dances, bull fights, music, dancing and typical food and drink.
The Chutillos festival in Potosi is definitely worth it. Especially the first day with the authentic dances and costumes is marvelous.
Feria Internacional de Exposiciones Santa Cruz.
Feria Internacional de La Paz FIPAZ es un evento que se realiza anualmente los meses de octubre y noviembre. Los empresarios que participan pertenecen a los rubros de industria, comercio, turismo, telecomunicaciones, servicios, artesanía, tecnologías, alimentos, madera, gráficos, automotriz, educación, cultura, gastronomía, hidrocarburos y agroindustria.
Para el deleite del público se presentan juegos novedosos y deportes extremos como el muro de escalar, teleférico, tiro de arco y ballesta, Euro-Bungy, bolas acuáticas, las botas saltarinas y mucho más.
November 1 is celebrated throughout the Catholic world as Día de Todos Santos, or All Saints Day, to honor all the saints, known and unknown, of the Catholic faithful. Every day of the year has its own saint or saints, but there are more saints than calendar days, and this one major holy day honors them all, including those who had died in a state of grace but had not been canonized. And, to keep things fair, November 2 is celebrated as the Day of All Souls.
Día de Todos Santos is also known as Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Like many other Catholic celebrations, in the New World it was grafted onto existing indigenous festivities to meld the new Catholicism with the old pagan beliefs.
In countries where the Europeans eventually reduced the indigenous populations, by one means or another, the celebrations gradually lost their native meaning and became more of a traditional Catholic event.
In Latin American countries where the indigenous culture is still strong, such as in Guatemala and Mexico in Central America, and in Bolivia in South America, Día de Todos Santosis an important meld of many influences.
In Central America, the dead are honored by visits to the their gravesites, often with food, flowers and all family members. In Bolivia, the dead are expected to return to their homes and villages.
The Andean emphasis is agricultural, since November 1 is in spring south of the Equator. It is the time of returning rains and the reflowering of the earth. The souls of the dead also return to reaffirm life.
During this time, the doors are opened to guests, who enter with clean hands and share in the traditional dishes, particularly the favorites of the deceased. Tables are bedecked with bread figurines called tantawawas, sugarcane, chicha, candies and decorated pastries.
At the cemeteries, the souls are greeted with more food, music, and prayers. Rather than a sad occasion, the Día de Todos Santos is a joyous event.
In Peru, November 1 is celebrated nationally, but in Cuzco its known as Día de todos los Santos Vivos, or Day of the Living Saints and celebrated with food, particularly the famed suckling pig and tamales. November 2 is considered the Día de los Santos Difuntosor Day of the Deceased Saints and is honored with visits to cemeteries.
Wherever you are in Latin America on the first and second of November, enjoy the local holidays!.