The chief national feast in Chile is September 18th, the anniversary
of the independence of the Republic, known as “El Diez y ocho.” There
are, however, numerous other anniversary celebrations, commemorating
victorious battles and historic events, which are observed with much
demonstration in the cities and thickly populated districts. All other
holidays, of which there are something like seventy in the year, are
called religious festivals. Every saint has his or her feast day, known
as church feasts, except the patron saint of the local church, in which
event the festival lasts for a week or more.
Ordinary feasts are held at private houses. The adobe walls of the room
selected for the service are covered with paper, and an improvised
altar arranged by placing lighted candles upon a table. Upon the wall
above the table is hung a colored print of the particular saint whose
anniversary is being celebrated. Those taking part in the services
are usually seated around the room upon stones or blocks of wood, and
if such seats are not available they squat upon the dirt floor, the
crowd frequently extending into the open in front of the house. There
are harpists, guitar players and singers. The feast, which is held
after the service, consists of boiled beans mixed with hulled corn,
and as extra, boiled dried peaches mixed with flour or toasted wheat.
After the food has been served someone in the crowd gives a “chaucha”
(twenty cents), to one of the players and music is rendered in praise
of the donor. Someone then buys wine or chicha and the health of the
saint is drunk. When the singers have rendered what they consider the
value of the donation, another person contributes, and by this means
the music is kept up. Liquor is passed and repassed until the supply is
exhausted, and the festival continues until the candles are burned out
and the crowd lapses into a state of innocuous desuetude, to sleep off
the effects of the debauch.
Religious ceremonies and feast day demonstrations are events of much
general interest to the country people. Easter on a farm brings about
the annual festival of “Correr á Cristo” (running to Christ). A mounted
procession with waving flags and banners, and weird shouting, makes a
tour of the farm, and the day is given over to a saturnalia of noise.
Sometimes the procession will stop by the roadside, or in the garden
in front of the farmhouse to hear mass, or long enough for those in
attendance to receive the blessings of the priests. The procession is
usually headed by a cart draped with palms and decorated with flowers.