Creole Song Day: the origin of the festival that competes against Halloween

A celebration full of tradition and melodies like this is the Day of the Creole song which is commemorated every October 31 in Peru. Although, this festival was established more than 70 years ago, with the passage of time it has penetrated the citizens, who pay a well-deserved tribute to this musical genre, which continues to this day.

Despite the fact that Halloween is also celebrated on this date, Peruvians of all ages, young and old, get caught up in the unmistakable sound of the cajon, the guitar and the castanets, that accompany the melodious voices interpreted by our best exponents of Creole music.

Although President Manuel Prado Ugarteche was the one who established by means of a supreme resolution the commemoration of this date, who really came up with the idea of ​​celebrating the Creole Song Day was Juan Manuel Carrera de Corral, a newspaper operator Trade, who was not a singer or musician, but his love for this genre led him to be the president of the “Carlos A. Saco” Musical Center, the first musical center of Creole.

Once he held that position, Carrera del Corral, who longed for the Creole song to have a day of celebration, began to knock on all the doors that were necessary to achieve its purpose. At the beginning it was complicated, but his dream began to echo until it reached the ears of the then president Prado.

On October 18, 1944, the then head of State Manuel Prado Ugarteche, through a supreme resolution declared that every October 31 the “Day of the Creole Song” be commemorated. in order to spread this musical genre.

The norm was given after the request presented by the Centro Social Musical “Carlos A. Saco” and other similar institutions. The text of the resolution states that “Popular art contributes to the consolidation of a nationalist conscience, so it is convenient to stimulate its manifestations”.

The first time the “Creole Song Day” was October 31, 1944. On that date, at 6 in the morning, the Peruvian flag was raised at the headquarters of the musical centers of Lima and Callao. Later, at 11:00 am, a mass was celebrated in the Iglesia del Carmen in Barrios Altos, in which homage was paid to the authors, composers and interpreters of this musical genre who died. Then there was a pilgrimage to the General Cemetery.

The main ceremony was at 7:30 pm in the premises of the “Carlos A. Saco” Musical Center, in the Plaza Buenos Aires, in Barrios Altos. After singing the National Anthem, established groups such as “La limeñita y Ascoy”, the duo “Romero – Monteverde”, Máximo Garrido and the famous guitarists Francisco Estrada and Demetrio Cruzado appeared, among many more. The celebration ended, according to the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, at 2 am the next day.

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The briefing note was originally published on October 28, 2020 and updated on October 29, 2021.

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