Fiestas Patrias in Chile

When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain and put in jail the Spaniard King, the colonies in America had no leader and the people decided to stablish provisional Governments until the king was released or the Spaniards send someone with new orders. But, after the first government, creoles realized that we can live without the command of a foreign country. When the order was restored in Spain, the king sent their armies to take control again in the colonies, here starts the war of independence.

Fiestas Patrias in Chile consists of two days: September the 18th, that commemorate the first Government in 1810, and the beginning of the path to the independence in eight years later, in February of 1918. And the second day is September the 19th that commemorate the "Day of the Glories of the Army".

The week of the Dieciocho have so much activities. Families eat barbecued, empanadas, choripanes and many kind of traditional food. Childrens play a lot of traditional games, like “trompo”, “palo encebado” and fly kites.

But the most important for the most of the people is to get drunk. You can go to the fondas to drink many of national alcoholic beverages, like chicha, vino, piscola (coca cola and pisco) or terremoto, the favourite drink of every one. Terremoto is a mix of pipeño (sweet wine), granadine and pineapple ice cream.