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Head Office Cusco - Perú : |
CORPUS CHRISTI
On their arrival at Cusco, the Spaniards got surprised when they knew the God's children would take the Inca mummies in procession. Then they decided to finish with that pagan celebration. The missionaries, who were going with the conquerors, took a simple decision according to that age: they replaced the honoured remains by images of the Virgin and the Catholic Saints. Then the Corpus Christi, a catholic celebration mixed with Andean shades, was born in the ancient Capital of the Tawantinsuyo.
Corpus Christi is today one of the most important catholic celebration in Cuzco.
The festival of Corpus Christi has been celebrated all over Peru since colonial times, but reaches a high point in Cusco. Fifteen saints and virgins from various districts are borne in a procession to the Cathedral where they "greet" the body of Christ embodied in the Sacred Host, kept in a fabulous gold goblet weighing 26 kilos and standing 1.2 meters high.
The procession on Thursday, the main day, takes places at around 11:00am. The Plaza de Armas will be crowded with people that came to see the saints. After the procession, normally in the early evening the saints go back to the cathedral and the representatives of the local communities come together and discuss local problems.
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