In Spanish class today, Delia told me how various holidays are celebrated in Bolivia. Afterwards, I had to tell her about how we celebrate them in Germany - a wonderful way to practice my Spanish!
The biggest festivity in Bolivia is carnival. It is the only event with two national holidays. Everything else, be it Easter, Christmas, or independence day, has only one. In the Pacific war, Chile used this to launch their attack precisely at carnival, when everybody in Bolivia was off celebrating. To read more about carnival, check my posts about Oruro carnival :-)
Easter is celebrated very differently from Germany - there is no rabbit hiding chocolate eggs for Bolivian children! The main Easter celebration in Bolivia takes place on Good Friday. It is customary to fast until noon while preparing a variety of dishes. Originally, twelve different dishes were prepared, one for each of Jesus' followers. With time, this reduced first to six, and then to three dishes. Each of the dishes is vegetarian - no meat for catholics on fridays! At noon the feast begins: people eat their own dishes, then invite neighbors to eat, and in turn visit neighbors to eat some more. Seems to be a worthy end to the 40 day fasting period after carnival!
Christmas is also very different to German Christmases. However, it seems to me that some of our customs are creeping into Bolivian Christmas celebrations. In addition, Christmas seems to be a much smaller event than in Europe - I guess that is because it is summer here and people don't need a big celebration with lots of light to cheer up.
The main attraction in Bolivia are Buñuelos, a kind of sweet dough ball flavored with anise and topped with a sugar glaze. According to Delia, there is a saying that if you don't eat buñuelos at Christmas, you'll have to eat donkey feces after death - an easy choice to make!
Originally, only señoras - older ladies - in the neighborhood made them. In order to get some, kids had to study Christmas songs and dances, and perform them when visiting the neighbors. Today, each family makes them for themselves, and kids are too occupied by the presents they get to visit neighbors and dance for them - and this is what I meant with European customs taking over Bolivian Christmas celebrations...
The biggest festivity in Bolivia is carnival. It is the only event with two national holidays. Everything else, be it Easter, Christmas, or independence day, has only one. In the Pacific war, Chile used this to launch their attack precisely at carnival, when everybody in Bolivia was off celebrating. To read more about carnival, check my posts about Oruro carnival :-)
Easter is celebrated very differently from Germany - there is no rabbit hiding chocolate eggs for Bolivian children! The main Easter celebration in Bolivia takes place on Good Friday. It is customary to fast until noon while preparing a variety of dishes. Originally, twelve different dishes were prepared, one for each of Jesus' followers. With time, this reduced first to six, and then to three dishes. Each of the dishes is vegetarian - no meat for catholics on fridays! At noon the feast begins: people eat their own dishes, then invite neighbors to eat, and in turn visit neighbors to eat some more. Seems to be a worthy end to the 40 day fasting period after carnival!
Christmas is also very different to German Christmases. However, it seems to me that some of our customs are creeping into Bolivian Christmas celebrations. In addition, Christmas seems to be a much smaller event than in Europe - I guess that is because it is summer here and people don't need a big celebration with lots of light to cheer up.
The main attraction in Bolivia are Buñuelos, a kind of sweet dough ball flavored with anise and topped with a sugar glaze. According to Delia, there is a saying that if you don't eat buñuelos at Christmas, you'll have to eat donkey feces after death - an easy choice to make!
Originally, only señoras - older ladies - in the neighborhood made them. In order to get some, kids had to study Christmas songs and dances, and perform them when visiting the neighbors. Today, each family makes them for themselves, and kids are too occupied by the presents they get to visit neighbors and dance for them - and this is what I meant with European customs taking over Bolivian Christmas celebrations...
