The big event last week was Dia de Tacna, which is August 28th. This local holiday commemorates when Tacna was returned to Peruvian control after being in the hands of Chile since the War of the Pacific in the late 1800s. My limited understanding of Peruvian history is that Chile won the war and took control of Tacna and several provinces south of here, which are now part of Chile but had been part of Peru prior to the war. Tacna is the name of both the town where we live and the state it is in, so the holiday refers to the return of the whole state/province. This year was the 80th anniversary of the return of Tacna.
Schools and many businesses were closed on Friday, but the school celebrated on Thursday. The big event was the ¨desfile¨or parade, where each class in the secondary (equivalent of grades 7-11) marched, military style. Before that, though, there was a flag raising, speeches about the significance of the day, and singing and dancing by the primary school kids.
In addition, in the morning the parents of each section of the school (preschool, primary, and secondary) made ¨alfombras¨(which means rug or carpet in spanish) out of dirt and leaves and flowers and I don´t know what else, in the street outside of the school. They were gorgeous! The parents and on-lookers then spent lots of time trying to shoo the wandering neighborhood dogs off the alfombras so they wouldn´t get ruined, with limited success. The marchers actually marched over the alfombras, very serious and military style, and there was a contest to see which class won.
After that, they all cooked some traditional food in their classrooms and then went home for the day. It was fun to get to watch the morning activities and the parade and get a taste of this local celebration.
We took pictures of the festivities and the alfombras but are having some technical difficulties with our camera, so we wanted to share the event now and hope to post pictures soon!
Schools and many businesses were closed on Friday, but the school celebrated on Thursday. The big event was the ¨desfile¨or parade, where each class in the secondary (equivalent of grades 7-11) marched, military style. Before that, though, there was a flag raising, speeches about the significance of the day, and singing and dancing by the primary school kids.
In addition, in the morning the parents of each section of the school (preschool, primary, and secondary) made ¨alfombras¨(which means rug or carpet in spanish) out of dirt and leaves and flowers and I don´t know what else, in the street outside of the school. They were gorgeous! The parents and on-lookers then spent lots of time trying to shoo the wandering neighborhood dogs off the alfombras so they wouldn´t get ruined, with limited success. The marchers actually marched over the alfombras, very serious and military style, and there was a contest to see which class won.
After that, they all cooked some traditional food in their classrooms and then went home for the day. It was fun to get to watch the morning activities and the parade and get a taste of this local celebration.
We took pictures of the festivities and the alfombras but are having some technical difficulties with our camera, so we wanted to share the event now and hope to post pictures soon!
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