Holy Week in Ayacucho

This festivity takes place in the city of Huamanga in the Ayacucho region.
The Ayacucho Holy Week is one of the most important religious festivities at national and world level, characterized by maintaining its own peculiarity and the predilection with which they perform their fervor and deep religiosity that make it unique and different.

In these festivities the local people live a pilgrimage of devotion and Catholic faith, incarnating in the passages of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

HOLY WEEK IN AYACUCHO - HUAMANGA

Currently, the festival begins early on Palm Sunday, with a blessing of the flowers and palms that the children will carry when accompanying the image of Christ seated on a colt. Then the people gather in the Plaza de Armas to witness the entrance of the chamizo or straw, which is burned in the bonfires of Saturday of Glory.

Almost at the same time, from the temple of Santa Teresa, the image of Christ seated on the colt goes out in procession, accompanied by a live representation of the twelve apostles.

The holy week of Ayacucho is characterized by the active participation of the people, giving the sensation of living a collective drama in which the population is one of the characters.

HISTORY:

The Spanish conquerors, clergymen and missionaries brought with them to Peru their way of life; with it came their religious culture that taught love and human morals. Among them, the religious feast of Holy Week was introduced in the course of the evangelizing process in the historical period of the colony.

Once Huamanga was founded in what was the seat of Pucará, the Holy Week played a very important role in the incorporation of the indigenous people to the religion and the Catholic Church. Although at the beginning this religious festivity had to be molded to the indigenous tradition, little by little it was very well received by them.

DATE:

Holy Week in Ayacucho is celebrated between the second half of March to the first week of April, the date is changeable.

LOCATION