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The dance of blacks
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The celebration “dance of blacks” it’s the third day of October, in a small town called “Lora”.
This is a common celebration and a very a striking holiday of the country. This is performed to honor “The Virgin del Carmen”. Her roots go back to her first years of the colonial age.
The ceremony begins with a procession, in which, The Virgin is placed on a cart properly decorated for the occasion, this figure, is shown walking around the town and is followed for a group of devotees wearing special dresses; The Pifaneros: they are men who wear formal clothes, with a tie and a tricolor ribbon, they play the fife; Black girls: they are a women who wear Mapuche vestments and they're painted in black to remember that black slaves those days were free to dance and to worship the virgin; Empellejados: they are a men covered with animal skin; Angels: they are faithful devotees who carried their children dressed like angels. This procession ends at the church, this is the main point where the party started with the dance of blacks at the rhythm of bass drums and flutes, in which, all participants begin to dance, they move between twelve and fourteen meters taking steps forward and backwards, while others make sounds with sticks and whips. Everything that belongs to the choreography is a legacy of rhythms from Mapuches and Incas including the instruments. This is a very special celebration if you want to go, you just know where and when it is. It’s an experience you’ll never forget; you should go and enjoy all about the mystic of this celebration.
