Every year the Festival of the Lord of Great Power weaves its way through the streets of La Paz, Bolivia.
The event has been nominated as a World Heritage event to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The dancers, some 30,000 of them, belong to over 50 folkloric fraternities, similar to the “krewes,” which build floats to parade for Mardi Gras.
The fraternities raise money to fund the elaborate costumes.
Two of the dances, the Morenada and the Caporales, signify the suffering of slaves.
Only the most prominent fraternity members are picked to dance the Morenada.
After the procession, the fraternities host parties that last all Sunday and sometimes beyond. The wealthiest fraternity members vie to throw the most elaborate celebrations, thus raising their status in the group—and ensuring as spot in the next year’s Morenada.
This ceremonial parade of dancers originated in the 17th century.
It celebrates a figure created from Catholicism combined with Aymara Indian lore: the Jesus of Great Power.
The festival is very similar to saints’ processions in Spain—not surprising, as Spain conquered the region in the 16th and 17th centuries and brought the Catholic faith.
As with saints’ processions at Spanish festivals, an effigy of the deity is carried at the head of the procession, supposedly to bring blessings to the entire town.
