Easter in Peru

Many people have been asking me how was Easter in Peru, am sure it was very different from what you have experienced in England/Ireland. I am afraid my answer to this questions, is I have no idea. The reason for this is because I was sick over Easter and spent the whole weekend in my bed. I did not even get to experience the lovely foods they eat especially at Easter, because my Peruvian mum put me on a diet of chicken soup with potatoes or just chicken and rice. Plain foods are the answer when sick.

However, I did manage to experience two special things - Easter Special at School and The visiting of the 7 churches in Arequipa.

On the Wednesday of Holy Week, the language school held a special Easter event for all the students in order for us to help understand more about the Peruvian culture and learn about the traditions of each country represented in the school.

On Good Friday, a special meal is eaten which consists of a special soup called Chupe de Viernes which is made with cray fish, eggs, rice, and a variety of vegetables. So Abi, one of the teachers in the school taught us about the soup and what it meant, as well as showing us how it was made, and finally we were allowed to enjoy some  - however, don't me asking me what it was like because due to the eggs in the soup and my allergy to eggs, I unfortunately could not eat any. But I have been told it was lovely, so I take people's word for it.

The Ingredients for the Soup

The Soup being cooked

The Finished Product

The lunch on Good Friday also consists of arroz con leche (creamed rice) and Mezzamorra Morada, which is made from purple corn and fruit. I did not have any during Easter, but did eat some tonight for tea and can say that it is lovely.  If you want to make it, please find the recipe here: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mazamorra-Morada but remember you will need purple corn and don't know if you can get that in Britian! Sorry, you will just have to come to Peru to taste it.

While the soup was cooking, each student talked about the Easter traditions in their country. The students int the school come from many different countries: Australia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Kazakstan, Norway and the United States of America. So we heard about the traditions in each of these countries. And I learnt a few things:

It seems out of the three British Nations represented that Northern Ireland celebrates more than the other England and Scotland. However, Tony from England told us an interesting thing - there is now a Christian company who make Easter Eggs and they are sold in the four major supermarkets in England... interesting). 

One of the traditions in Kazakstan is making a cake for Easter, which Liza who is from there, made and brought in for us to see and eat. 

It seems that out of all the countries represented, that Germany is the country similar to Peru, in that it takes celebration of Easter seriously - think this is because they are both deeply rooted in Catholicism. One of the German students, Katya, hid loads of painted hard boiled eggs around the school for us to find - this was fun. She reminded us it was important to find all the eggs, because one year her mum hid eggs for her and her siblings, but they did not find all the eggs but did not realise this until a couple of months later a horrible smell emanated from the living room and there behind the sofa they found a rotten egg! 

We did find ALL the eggs

This has turned out to be a long post, so will talk about the visiting of the 7 churches in a separate post.