Holy Week is one time when many people live their faith to the fullest. They remember all the happenings of Christ’s triumphal entrance to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the procession of the Lord of Temblors on Holy Monday, the twelve dishes, and finally the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Days before Holy Friday, products such as molluscs, prawns, cry fish, fish eggs, and fish arrive in Cusco’s markets from the coast. In this way they provide the material people need for their Holy Week meals. In the same way, people from the mountains also bring in their products, such as corn, squash, potatoes, ollucos, and cochayuyo (lake weed), etc.
It is recommended people make their purchases days beforehand since as the dates approach prices climb and product grow scarce. Fish and fish eggs, in particular, grow very scarce.
The dishes that will likely be on tables on Holy Friday are lagua de maiz (a corn chowder), a sopa de lisas con tarwi (a soup of olluco with the legume tarwi), squash soup, rich with fish, tarwi with rice, and desserts such as purple pudding (mazamorra morada), rice pudding, stewed peaches, empanadas, and suspiros (meringues).
For this day, the twelve plates are served in commemoration of the twelve apostles. In many parts of Peru families gather to pass the day with each other while enjoying the twelve dishes and following closely the happenings. For that, we have videos we can purchase, dramatizations, and much more for Holy Week.
