As we already saw in classes, the word culture has a variety of definitions but there are mainly are

two kinds of culture; culture with a capital C and culture with a small c. Culture with capital c
refers to music, literature, visual arts and knowledge in general. In the other hand, culture with
small c refers to beliefs, values, traditions, and customs of a particular community.

Today I will focus in this last definition of culture; specifically I will be talking about the Chilean
culture and one of our celebrations, tradition that I think is one of the most representative, the
Fiestas Patrias.

Chilean culture has been influenced by different factores: the geographic location, its relatively
homogeneous population and the mixture or blending of the Spanish colonial elements with the
indigenous culture, mainly Mapuche, factores that make up the present Chilean culture

Within the country, there are a lot of traditions, customs, beliefs that are expressed in a variety of
ways: dance, music, art forms, typical celebrations, among more.

different traditions or celebrations in our Chilean culture. It is surprising the amount of

celebrations and “parties” that we can find throughout our territory; religious, popular , inlcudibng
typical dances, popular music and rituals, but as I said before

I think that one of the most important celebrations for us is Fiestas Patrias, where we celebrate
the commemoration of the 1st government meeting, which marked* the beginning of the Chilean
Independence process. They are two days of celebration the 18 and 19th of September, but
usually people have the entire week to celebrate. During this festivity there are a lot of traditions
and activities that are done by almost everyone such as dancing the typical dance, the cueca,
going to fondas and barbecues, playing typical games like the emboque, trompo, flying kites,
eating empanadas, drinking terremotos, chicha, among more typical things.

Here in Coquimbo region we have an important celebration during Fiestas Patrias that is the Fiesta
de la Pampilla, which is a festival that has been celebrated since 1860, where you can find all these
traditional activities that I mentioned.
Even though this activities and celebrations may seem like only having fun asjdjd, I think that they
really the national identity, because the flag, hymn, typal dance , its like everyone feel Chilean
during fiestas patrias. The Fiestas Patrias highlight the typical traditions of national identity that
make up the so-called "chilenidad", and are some of the most popular celebrations in Chile.

Culture has a great importance is the identity of a country, of a group of people. The celebration
of Fiestas Patrias is an expression of the Chilean culture, of our identity I think that is the best
example of the expression of the Chilean identity, the belonging

the different celebration and “parties” are made up by our traditions and customs, things that
represents us.