How to celebrate the 18th!

One of the reasons I chose to visit Chile in September is that I wanted to be here for the Fiestas Patrias. Not only is it a time when everyone tries their hardest to express their Chilenidad, but it's a celebration of Springtime as well. So I knew that as a visitor to the country it would be an experience unique to this country.

Here's how to celebrate the 18th, through the eyes of a gringa. Though there are many variations on how to do the 18th, depending on your age, interests, and in what region of the country you live, there are a few things that are necessary.

One is the consumption of empanadas - for lack of a better description, savoury pastries filled with stuff. For the 18th it's got to be the traditional pino filling, that is, ground beef with onions, a slice of hard-boiled egg and one olive.

The second is the cueca! The name of both the dance and the music it's danced to, it's everywhere for the week leading up to the 18th. Blasting in restaurants, in the street, house parties, and in dance clubs the DJ will always slip a couple in every once in a while. Though traditionally it's this old-fashioned dance for a couple in costume where they sort of seduce each other by waving handkerchiefs around, everyone either had to learn it in school, or dance it with their grandma, or what have you. So when one comes on in a club or with friends, everyone drunkenly starts doing their best imitation. Sort of a similar effect to if you put some bagpipe music at a party in Nova Scotia and everyone starts doing their bastardized version of a highland fling.

Then there's the fonda. Sort of a like a big country fair, though they're held everywhere, from small towns to downtown Sanitago. There's traditional food and drink, competitions in different events like rodeo, music, and often games and activities for kids, including full-out fairs at some of the bigger ones. Come nighttime, there can be music, and lots to drink. There are different incarnations of the fonda, including ones that if they were to happen on any other day of the year would simply be called concerts. There have been posters all over town since I arrived. The one hat makes me laugh every time is called the Yein Fonda. (Yein is pronounced "Jane" in Spanish.)

Barbeques, called asados, are de rigueur for the 18th, as is the consumption of much wine, chicha ( this semi-fermented wine that's sort of like juice, but with a kick). There are red, white and blue banners, and Chilean flags and ribbons and the like everywhere. And in some stores the employees are even forced to wear the traditional black wide-brimmed fedora-type hat with a red, white and blue ribbon on it. ¡Viva Chile!