Ayacucho Events and Festivals
(Ayacucho, Peru)
There are local festivals and seasonal things to do taking place virtually every week in Ayacucho, and so holiday makers based in this part of
Peru will find plenty to enjoy, whatever the time of the year. However, for those who are in Ayacucho during Easter, the Holy Week celebrations of Semana Santa will be hard to miss.
Semana Santa is one of the biggest of all the festivals staged in Ayacucho and many religious events and celebrations take place in the city's churches. Holy Week events commence on the Friday before Palm Sunday and last some ten days, leading up to Easter Sunday, with daily processions, art works, traditional Peruvian folk dancing, music concerts, agricultural fairs, traditional feasting, bonfires, open-air street markets, parades of horses and donkeys, bull running, and much more besides.
Ayacucho Calendar of Festivals and Events 2014 / 2015: General Information
The city's most prominent events are as below.
- Kings of Jerusalem Festival (Bajada de Reyes) - early January, in the neighbouring town of Belen, with plentiful dancing and entertainment
- Fiesta de la Circuncision del Senor - early January, at the Templo de Belen
- Virgen de la Candelaria - early February, religious parades based at the temples of San Sebastian and Santa Clara
- Fiesta de las Comadres y Compadres - mid-February, a religious festival and feast, which takes place at all of Ayacucho's churches
- Carnival - late February / early March, with folk dancing, costumed parades and plenty of partying for everyone
- Holy Week (Semana Santa) - late March / early April, with spectacular events hosted all around Ayacucho, culminating on the Saturday prior to Easter Sunday, with all-night partying leading up to early morning fireworks
- Festival of the Crosses (Fiesta de Las Cruces) - mid-May, with feasting in the district of Puca Cruz, and the blessing of the crosses ceremony at the church of San Francisco de Asis
- Fiesta de Corpus Christi - late June, religious events held on the ninth Thursday after Easter Sunday
- Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen - mid-July, a religious festival at the Church of Santa Teresa
- National Independence Days - July 28th / 29th - national event held in Ayacucho and throughout Peru
- Celebration of the Ascension (Celebración de la Ascención) - mid-August, celebrated in both Ayacucho and its surrounding towns
- Fiesta de Nuestra Senora de las Nieves de Parinacochas - mid-August, with events such as bullfights and folkloric dancing
- Fiesta del Senor de Maynay - mid-September, festivities and processions based in Huanta
- Fiesta de la Virgen de Las Mercedes - late September, at the Church of La Merced
- Fiesta de la Virgen del Rosario - mid-October, at the Church of Santo Domingo
- All Saints Day (Fiesta de Todos los Santos) - November 1st, with various religious events staged at Ayacucho's cathedral, with lots of Peruvian 'Huahuas' biscuits
- Battle of Ayacucho - early December, a local festival commemorating this important historic date, with parades at the Pampa de la Quinua