FINE-ART
CARVED GOURDS AND EMBROIDERIES

The Alfaro Nuñez family

gourd collection 2008-04

Among the many folk customs of Huancayo, we have a traditional festival called the Fiesta del Santiago (festival of Saint James), also known as Taita Shanti, which runs from July 25 through July 31 in the area around Huancayo. In the northern part of the country, it starts on the first of August and runs through the end of the month. This festival is held in honor of animals and Saint James.

People who participate in this festival do so in the belief that its celebration will increase the fertility of their livestock.

Those celebrating the festival hire a folk orchestra or a group of musicians who play a violin, a drum, and a deep-sounding horn made from a cattle horn, called the wacrapuco. From dinnertime onwards, the sound of music directs people to collect their animals from the fields in which they had been pastured and bring them home, where blankets have been prepared on which are spread many cocoa leaves.

After this, visitors who would like to do so sit around the blankets to search the most perfect coca leaves, known as coca quinto. After a certain time, the cocaquinto searched out by everyone present is collected and whoever has been unable to find a single perfect leaf of coca must take his punishment. The punishment is that the festival leader serves him a very full glass of highly fermented cicha (a milky, straw-colored drink made from corn) which he must drink without stopping to rest, which cannot fail to make him drunk.

The decoration of the animals begins, while the rhythm of the music makes everyone dance. A group of people hold the animals so that ribbons (aretes) can be tied to the horns of the females and a collar-band put on the males (corbata). After finishing with all the animals, the perfect coca leaves are brought and fed to them, along with the finest wine. The people also drink the wine and eat the leaves.

For every animal, the man who is in charge of the animals for the festival adds as a collar a garland of assorted fruit (huallas). To the sound of music, the woman who is in charge of the animals for the festival attaches many pieces of candy to the animal's blanket. The sweets are then showered over the visitors. This part is particularly enjoyed by the children, who have a good time collecting the fruit and candy.

After this part of the festival, all that is left to do is dance a great deal until the very end.