Yup. That first picture is a real life mummy. Being carried tenderly by the descendants of an Incan culture that preserved their deceased elders so that they could rejoin their communities to share in holiday celebrations and contribute to important decision making. And this particular mummy, I'm told by my cab driver, is also a saint. A very holy indigenous figure dressed in native garb, partaking in the same procession as the statues of much more European looking saints, also being shuttled by the caring shoulders of Peruvians dressed in a wide array of Spanish and Incan classical and contemporary dress.
This was the Festival of Corpus Christi - a Catholic celebration in mid-June originally designed to replace the Incan observance of the Winter Solstice. Instead, the two holidays have become one drawn out week, full of roving processions that would make New Orleans proud, both for their robust declaration of life and their proud and vibrant melding of colliding cultures. This is Cusco - the old capitol of the 3,000 mile-long Incan Empire. Where residents proudly speak Quechua and Spanish, point out that the old Incan religion had a figure a lot like Jesus, and will explain to you how the gold in the local Catholic church reflects the Sun God, the silver the Moon Goddess, and the mirrors the waters of Lake Titicaca where legend holds the original Incan people poured forth. Where men might don a slick black-banded fedora or a rainbow colored winter hat, and women can be found in colorful top hats that would give Uncle Sam a run for his money.
And anyone, including a pale red-head from the United States, can be swept up in a random river of brass horns and drums that meanders its way through the streets of the old city, occasionally swirling around in plazas for a few minute break, while participants belt out shared songs with bravado, couples dance with abandon, and the band gives each group of instruments its turn to flavor the tune. It is Incan. It is European. In the melting pot and salad bowl that is Cusco, Peru.
