Festival de Shiran

Each Peruvian town has its own patron saint which is honored annually with a town festival. Shiran, which belongs to the district of Poroto, is celebrating their festival to honor “Senor de los Milagros” this week. I work in Shiran, so the school principal invited me to participate in the school’s mass yesterday morning. The students paraded through town and brought offerings of fresh produce to the local church where the priest delivered a sermon directed to the students.

One of the afternoon festivities involved a soccer game between various community organizations. One thing I love about Peruvian sporting activities is the opportunity it provides to bring the community together. There are organized sports teams composed of mother’s groups, the police station, the health post, and more.

Another awesome aspect of Peruvian festivals is the massive array of street food available. Sweet, salty, exotic, familiar… you name it, you can find it at a town festival. We sampled piccarones, which are fried dough rings with a molasses syrup, candy apples, roasted peanuts, and I strategically avoided the chicken feet and hearts. As the night continued more and more people began to fill the streets and eventually the band started to play and the dancing commenced.

The town festival continued throughout the weekend with a variety of events and spectacles for the community to participate in. My personal favorite was the Marinera dancing competition. Marinera is a traditional dance where the women wear beautiful flowing dresses, elabaorate jewelry, and extensive hair and makeup. The dance is intended to mirror the dancing of the Caballos de Paso, which are a certain breed of horses famous in the region of Trujillo for their fancy footwork. The Marinera is a beautiful dance to watch; there is a perfect interchange between the man and woman as they move their feet at amazing speeds. The dance competition featured participants as young as 5 years old, whose performances were quite impressive. The competition continued throughout the afternoon as couples were eliminated and eventually the queen of Marinera was named.

Later in the evening there was a procession dedicated to the patron saint, Senor de los Milagros. Citizens lined the streets holding candles and carrying an altar of the saint. Saya dancers led the procession, dressed in elaborate red and gold costumes. As we were watching my host mom was telling me an animated story about a previous town festival, when I see smoke rising from behind her head. I scream when I realize that someone standing behind her had caught her hair on fire. She’s about 5 feet tall, so the candles were right at her head level from other people’s hands. Luckily she managed to put it out, but it definitely burnt a solid section of her hair.

Continuing with the fire-related celebrations we continued to the Plaza de Armas where a mariachi band was serenading all those in attendance. In the center of the plaza there was a large tower constructed of thin wooden poles that resembled bamboo. Previously the tower had been about 5 stories tall, but when it was completed it was 10 stories high with a combination of pinwheels, poles, and other accessories attached. Without warning, the tower was lit on fire and each section featured a series of fireworks that set off a domino-type effect to the next story of the tower. We were standing about 10 feet away from this crazy firework castle, and everyone thought it was hilarious when I screamed and jumped back (but hey, at least I didn’t get my hair burnt off). In addition to the firework castle, mini hot air balloons illuminated by a small fire were also sent off into the sky.