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I just celebrated "el 18 de septiembre" this past weekend (Thurs.-Sun.) From the northern deserts to the southern tip of Chile, Chileans party in remembrance of the day in 1810 that the Chilean criollo leaders proclaimed limited self-government during the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula. Actual independence came in April 1818, but the Dieciocho is a treasured celebration. The Dieciocho is a 4 day celebration consisting of parades, festivities, food, music and beverages. Much of the drinking, music and dancing occurs in the ramadas, open air "buildings" with a dance floor under a thatched roof. Refreshment stands, fondas, offer a variety of national food favorites. Some of which are various asados (barbecued meats consisting of steaks, chicken, and vegetables on skewers) empanadas (which are homemade bread stuffed with a variety of meats and vegetables. The most popular is the "empanada del horno" which consists of steak, hardboiled eggs, black olives, and onion. There are also "sopapillas" which is just homemade fried bread. The empanadas and sopapillas are served with aji-which is a spicy sauce consisting of peppers, tomatoes, onions, basil, whatever you want! There´s also traditional Chilean folk-music filling the air with the traditional dance of "la cueca, (here´s a website to check out the dance on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr9WKG259qI&feature=related)
The traditional drinks obviously include red wine, along with "ponché" which is just red wine with berries that have been marinating for about a day or so (people prepare it ahead of time to mix the flavors together...This was my favorite drink!) There´s also a drink called "chicha" that has a milky looking straw color and a sour aftertaste, kind of like apple cider. It´s made my fermenting grapes (just like wine) except with "chicha" the grapes are only fermented HALF WAY, so there´s only a very small bit of alcohol (about 1-3%.) I did not care for this drink AT ALL!! YUCK!
The celebration started Thurs. morning at 10am and ended around 10pm Sun. My family had an "asado" Fri. afternoon at 2pm, with LOTS of meat, salads, desert, and of course lots of wine! It was fun to meet more of Mónica´s family. Her mom, brother and his wife, and two sons came over. There was a total of 10 of us. I actually helped out in making one of the salads, so I´ll have to make it sometime when I return home.
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