Los Santos, Republic of Panamá

Province of Los Santos

PROVINCE OF LOS SANTOS

Museums

Museo Belisario Porras: Founded in 1959. Located on Avenida Belisario Porras, City of Las Tablas. It is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Belisario Porras, a three-times President of the country. Open Tuesday through Sunday.
Casa Museo Manuel Fernando Zárate: Founded in 1969. Located on 21 de Enero Street, City of Guararé. It is dedicated to the memory of the folklorist Manuel F. Zárate, who was instrumental in the organization of the Festival de la Mejorana, the largest folkloric event of the country. Open Monday through Friday.
Museo de la Nacionalidad (Museum of the Nationality): Located on José Vallarino St., in the City of Los Santos. It features an archaeologic collection from Tonosí, a District in the province, and historical and folkloric documents.

Festivals and Festivities

Carnival in Las Tablas

The carnival in the City of Las Tablas is recognized as the best in the country. It takes place during February, about 40 days before Good Friday. By tradition the town is divided into two groups called tunas: calle arriba and calle abajo, who compete in every aspect of the carnival. Events follow a similar pattern on each of the four days of Carnival (Saturday to Tuesday). In the morning, there are water, blue dye and shaving cream fights in the central plaza, and the two tunas parade in street clothes, dancing and singing songs praising their group or ridiculizing the other. The morning events are called the culecos. At night people dress in party clothes; the dancing parades include decorated floats. After the parades at night, each tuna goes back to their toldo (their base) and join a large dancing party until early hours of the morning. Next day ... ... back to the central plaza for more culecos, unless it is Wednesday (Ash Wednesday according to the Catholic Calendar), when people that came to the town for the carnival leave and there does not appear to be a single soul in the central plaza.

Carnival is also celebrated in many other cities of the country. Penonomé (in the Province of Coclé), Chitré (in Herrera), Chorrera (in the Province of Panamá), Panama City, and many other places are also popular for their carnival celebrations.

Religious Festivities of Corpus Christi

June, Villa de Los Santos (City of Los Santos)

Encuentro Folklorico del Canajagua (Folkloric Encounter of El Canajagua)

January, City of Macaracas

Festival Nacional de la Mejorana (National Folkloric Festival of La Mejorana)

September, City of Guararé. It is the largest folkloric festival of the country. Folkloric groups from all over the country come to this picturesque town to present their dances and costumes. This is an obligated stop for the tourist interested in Panamanian folklore.

Festival de la Pollera

July, City of Las Tablas, during the Patron Saint Festival of Santa Librada. The pollera is the national dress for women, and is one of the most (if not the most) beautiful national dresses of the world. A contest is held in which ladies expose their beautiful and expensive dresses and ornaments. One of these dresses can cost thousands of dollars. The Patron Saint Festival of Santa Librada is one of the most important events in the year for the province. People from many towns and villages come to the capitol of the province to enjoy several days of fiesta. There are bull fights, dances, cockfights, contests, religious activities, and many attractions.

Fairs

Feria de Azuero: Industrial, Agricultural and Cultural Fair. City of Los Santos, April. Usually there are exhibitions of animals and crafts, bull fights, dances, and many other attractions.

Some of the Cities in the Province

Las Tablas: Capital of the Province of Los Santos
Villa de Los Santos
Guararé
Macaracas

Some Special Customs

Junta de Embarra

A Junta de Embarra is an example of the way in which many Panamanian communities functioned in the past. Juntas (work gatherings) still happen in some towns, especially in provinces like Los Santos and Herrera. When a family needed to prepare the land for sowing, to build a home, or to do some other job that required considerable manpower, they would invite other townspeople to come and spend the day working. Food and drinks (when appropriate) were provided by the owners of the junta. Men provided labor for the task. Women cooked, served food, and helped in the main task if appropriate. During the job, which could last more than one day, the workers usually sang and yelled. The celebration is a necessary part of the event. In the picture below, several men prepare mud with straw to build the walls of the home (embarrar: in this case means to cover with mud). The frame for the home, which can be seen in the background, is made of wood and cañaza, a bambu-like material. Workers received no monetary compensation, but they knew they could count on their neighbors for the next time they had a large task to accomplish.

Junta de Embarra

Quema de Judas (Judas hanging and burning)

Easter is a very special event in Panama. After the Catholic ceremonies of Thursday, Good Friday, and Saturday evening, many country side Panamanians celebrate Saturday night by going to dances. In many cases, Saturday is a day when families get together and have feasts during the whole day. It is also common that commercially organized events such as beach gatherings, bull fights, cockfights, singing events, and rodeo-like competitions will take place on Saturday. Easter Sunday includes morning mass, then a special procession celebrating Christ's resurrection, and then, in an event that is not part of the Church's regulated celebrations, people will burn a straw man that represents Judas. In Guarare, Judas' head is made of wood and painted. The same head is used year after year. Most of the time, the straw man is made early Saturday by a group of townspeople that are early partiers. These same people often organize a short caravan through town in order to collect money for fireworks that they stuff into the straw man and for beverages to keep them going! Sometime Saturday night, Judas is hung in the middle of the main plaza, and he will stay there until midday Sunday, when he is burnt in a comedy-like ceremony. One of Guarare exports is folklore, and many of the musicians from the most important country music groups in Panama live in Guarare. Musicians from other provinces are known to live in Guarare just because of the festive environment. It is common that many of these musicians come back from their performances and stop in Guarare's main plaza to participate in Judas' wake with other musicians that do not play in organized groups and with other regular people. Judas' wake is a continuous party that involves writing Judas' will and pretending to cry for his death, which usually involves calling the name of some person in town and having pretended nervous breakdowns. The burning ceremony starts, as mentioned before, after the religious ceremonies of Sunday morning, and includes reading Judas will. Judas will usually mentions all the scandals of the year, and brings up many topics that some people in town would rather forget. There is usually a lot of music and laughter.

Judas in Guarare (Easter Sunday)

Music during Judas burning ceremony, Guarare

Back to the Main Page