Achocalla Festival
Photo Credit: viventura.com
Each year, during the first week of January, the people of La Paz join together to celebrate the religious festival, Achocalla.
Featuring a colourful parade of traditional dance and music, Ancocalla marks the time in Bolivia’s harvest calendar when potato fields begin to bloom. Locals wear bread on their heads and chains of pears around their necks while dancing the “tarqueada”.
The folkloric dance is performed to ask for rain and plentiful crops from Pachamama; an Andean fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting.
Anchocalla celebrations are also held in small towns throughout Bolivia in the departments of Oruro, Cochambamba, Potosi, Sucre, Tarija and Beni.
Let's Discuss...