By Ariana Svenson of Apus Peru Adventure Travel Specialists
I encountered the true spirit of Christmas in Peru.
High up on a mountain trail the Andes, we chanced upon two colourfully dressed children carefully collecting a prickly alpine grass. “It is for Christmas” my friend explained – “for the nativity scene.”
I looked at him like he was mad – what nativity scene?
In my cultural ignorance I didn’t understand how we could celebrate the same holiday world wide but in a multitude of different ways.
We returned from our trek to find the normally attractive Plaza de Armas of Cusco magically transformed into a Christmas fairytale filled with large biblical animals covered in lights.
I flit around the plaza with the enthusiasm of a small child - the animals glitter gaily in Cusco’s night air; they are kitsch, but also loads of fun.
Cusco’s narrow, cobbled streets are frenetic and crowded at the best of times. In the lead up to Christmas long queues add to the mayhem.
There are mothers with children on their backs, old people bent over and hundreds of grubby munchkins standing or sitting on the footpaths. They are nearly all dirty and a closer look reveals that the children are dressed in traditional clothing – they are campesino (rural farm) children.
I ask a Peruvian friend what it is all about and end up as a volunteer. It’s a most memorable experience.
In a country with no social security, Christmas is an important occasion for the poor when churches, patrons, and businesses hold chocolatadas where they give hot chocolate, bread and a toy to the children and the old.
I donate a pathetically small amount of money (by Western standards) to an organisation and am rewarded with delight in small chocolate brown eyes and dirty hands grasping at new presents. I am giving to people who really need it and it feels wonderful.
As the holy holiday draws closer more campesino people appear on the streets. They sell moss, bits of plants they have found far up in the mountains. These plants are for Christmas Nativity scenes which are created by every Cusco household and have pride of place.
By Christmas Eve, hundreds of artisans and rural people have arrived in Cusco for the Santuranticuy market. The name means “Buying of the Saints” and its origins go back to the days of the Spanish conquest.
The country people place their blankets on the sidewalks and sell hand made Nativity handicrafts. They sleep, eat and live on the streets for several days – a colourful if not somehow sad spectacle.
The Plaza de Armas is transformed, there is not a spare space - I wander the admiring nativity figures, saints as well as the Andean version of the Baby Jesus, known as Niño Manuelito. I don’t buy – I have no idea of what any of the saints mean.
The Santuranticuy market is really an event for Cusquenos who buy their saints and baby Jesus – there are also a wide range of exquisite souvenirs – and lots of opportunity for people watching.
Well after dark the market winds down and I see hundreds of families sleeping on the streets. It seems unfair that I am heading off for a traditional Cusco family dinner with traditional wine, Paneton (a bread filled with fruits), hot chocolate and also a dinner of turkey or chicken.
Midnight is marked by the sounds of hundreds of fireworks exploding simultaneously. The family I am visiting run to the roof of their house and surrounded by explosions of colour, we laugh, hug and celebrate Christmas.
