The "Lord of Miracles"Location:Lima, Peru

Dates: 28 and 29 October (a month known as mes morado)

The annual Seor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) procession is the largest of its kind in all Latin America, and one of the biggest Catholic festivals in the world, with tens of thousands of faithful people who take part every year. The belief in the Lord of Miracles dates back to colonial times, when an African slave drew an image of a black Christ on a wall. Then, when an earthquake obliterated the chapel that housed the portrait, leaving only the altar and the miraculous mural, the Lord of Miracles started to be venerated. For that reason, the first procession took place in that year (1687). Furthermore, despite all attempts to remove it and despite some other heavy earthquakes that destroyed all houses in the area, the image have remained untouched until now. As a result the faith in Lord of Miracles and the adoration for him have grown steadily.Nowadays, this large procession celebrates a 350-year-old mural of the Lord of Miracles (Christ) and the devoted brotherhood carries the two-tonne artwork from the Church of Las Nazarenas, where it has been safely stored since 1776, to the Church of La Merced.The cargadores (carriers) and their female accomplices, who intone hymns and wave incense burners, are all clad in purple robes, the colour worn by the Nazarene nuns charged with looking after the holy image of Lord of Miracles. Among the other activities that are usually realized in this time, we can find in the Acho bullring, toreadors who compete for the Golden Cape of Our Lord of Miracles. With respect to gastronomy, in this celebration the Turrn de Doa Pepa (a nougat) and ring-shaped picarones (fritters) are the most eaten.If you had the opportunity to watch the parade you would see the streets filled with hundreds of thousands of people. In the same way, you would appreciate that there are bands playing live music and vendors everywhere, selling both dessert that were mentioned.