A trip to Peru makes the reality of daily life evident for all to see. The Peruvians, a huge majority of them Christians, are very pious, great believers and regular churchgoers. Paradoxically, they remain attached to ancient beliefs and are quick to combine the rites.
If your trip to Peru happens to coincide with a religious festival, you'll be astonished when you see the fervour of the local population. During Holy weeks, Easter and Christmas celebrations and for other religious occasions, enormous processions draw large, dense crowds. There's no doubt that many Peruvians practise their religions a great deal. However, on closer inspection, these Christian rites often have a unique and unusual dimension. Religious festivals often take place at the same time as pre-hispanic festivals. Even during the era of the Spanish missionaries, some of these religious men didn't hesitate to mix Christianity with Inca beliefs. It was easier for the Indians to believe in a Christ somehow linked to the Sun.
It's difficult for the Indians to believe in a God that is incapable of dominating Nature. For those who firmly believe in the Sun, the Moon and the Earth, how could Nature be stronger than any other God? Totally inconceivable. How can they also believe in the idea of a Christ, weak and dying? All this shows that ancestral beliefs have always prevailed in Peru. People believe in the Incan earth mother goddess, Pachamama, and in the Sun. These, by the way, are celebrated on the 24th of June every year. The Inti Raymi at Cusco is one of the grandest and most lavish festivals on the continent.
You only have to see the healers, shamans and witch doctors in the markets to realise the importance of these beliefs in the everyday lives of the local population. The magicians' diaries are even fuller than those of dentists in the UK. It's not unusual, when Peruvians are ill, for them to take a course of medicinal herbs or a magic potion along with their medicine. Before setting off on long journeys, drivers often stop to pray and ask for the trip to be blessed by giving presents of alcohol or coca leaves to Pachamama or to a traditional priest. Also, it never even crosses anyone's mind to build a house or building without burying a llama foetus in the foundations. Such is the contradictory daily life of the Peruvians.
