What Urban Planners Can Learn

From a Hindu Religious Festival

Katia Aibar
Jorge Farro
Virgen del Carmen Festival
Paucartambo – Peru

Location
 Hundreds of Quechua and mestizo locals will travel to
Paucartambo to celebrate the two day festival to honour
Paucartambo’s patron saint ‘La Virgen del Carmen’ or ‘Mamacha
Carmen’ as she is also known locally.
Visitors: 500 000, from Cuzco,
Arequipa, Puno and Lima
departments

It is one of the most

important dates in the
Andean calendar.
Comparisons to the ¨Kumbh Mela¨ Festival

There are still relatively few foreign tourists that visit the festival. It
is because there are no accommodations since the village is full up.
Virgen de la Candelaria
• In Peru, Puno is known as the Folkloric
Capital of Peru and lives up to this reputation
in grand manor during this fiesta which lasts
for days
• The mixing of Christian and pagan is very
evident here. Mamacha Candelaria, Mamita
Canticha, and MamáCandi, are all names for
the Virgen of Candelaria, the patron saint of
Puno.
• She is also
associated
with Lake
Titicaca as the
birth of the
Inca empire,
with the cult
of the earth,
Pachamama.
• Men, women
and children
dance in her
honor, to
show their
devotion and
their thanks
for her
blessings.
• The
celebration
continues as a
prelude to
Carnival.
 The festival has two main
phases.
• Main Day
• In which a procession
carries the statue of the
Virgen around the city, and
dancers in lavish costumes
from all walks of life join
the parade. The dancers, by
group, pause in front of the
cathedral to be blessed
with holy water, after
which they are cooled with
water thrown from nearby
houses.
• The second phase occurs
on the Sunday after
February second, called
the Octava. On this day,
La Octava, costumed
groups from the
neighborhoods of Puno
dance day and night in
religious fervor and
competitive spirit.
 Mistura
Lima - Peru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOtqzzlxm8A

Location

Type: Gastronomic event

¨Mistura¨ will use a space of
2.5 kilometers on the Costa
Verde for the next five years.

At least a million people

attended this year’s fair.
It is considered the Latin America’s largest culinary festival.
Theme: For 2013 it was water and aquatic resources.
US travel companies had a tour to Peru last September that includes a day at
Mistura 2013.