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Thursday 27 May 2027 is the main day. The saints are carried into the cathedral the day before, Wednesday 26 May, and go home after the octave procession on Thursday 3 June. The feast always falls 60 days after Easter, so the date moves each year.
The main procession of the saints starts at about 1pm, the time it set off in 2026. Mass is said at the cathedral at about 10am and the host goes round the square at 11:30am. The Wednesday entrance also begins at about 1pm, and the octave procession at 2pm.
Fifteen saints, each from a parish of the city. Among them are San Sebastián, San Jerónimo, Santa Ana and Santiago, and the Virgin of Belén. The cathedral's own image, the Immaculate Conception, joins them.
The Catholic feast of the Body of Christ, kept in Cusco with processions of parish saints round the Plaza de Armas. The images stay in the cathedral for eight days to honour the consecrated host, and then go home.
Yes. A 1982 law makes the Thursday of Corpus Christi a holiday in the Cusco region every year, and the same law covers Cajamarca. Some public offices still open on the day.
Chiri uchu is the cold plate of the feast, its name made of the Quechua words for cold and chili. It holds boiled hen, roast guinea pig, jerky, a corn fritter, toasted corn, cheese, sausage, seaweed and fish roe, with rocoto for heat. Stalls sell it on the Plaza San Francisco, three blocks from the Plaza de Armas, on the entrance day, the main Thursday and the octave.
On the Plaza de Armas, where the processions go round the edge of the square. A table on a restaurant balcony over the square gives a view over the crowd and is booked ahead. The Wednesday entrance passes along Calle Santa Clara and the Plaza San Francisco.
Cold at night and warm by day, from about 1°C to 20°C. Cusco sits at over 3,300 metres, so bring a hat and sunscreen for the afternoon on the square and a warm layer for the evening.
No. Corpus Christi is a Catholic feast that moves with Easter. Inti Raymi is the staged Inca festival of the sun, held at Sacsayhuamán every 24 June. Both fall in Cusco's festival season, and in 2027 they are four weeks apart.
Sixty days after Easter, the Catholic Church keeps the feast of the Body of Christ. In Cusco it is the week the parishes bring their patron saints to the cathedral, where the images stay for eight days to honour the consecrated host.
The custom took the place of an Inca one. The Incas carried the mummies of their dead rulers through this same square, and under Spanish rule the parish saints took over the litters.
26 May to 3 Jun 2027
Stand on the Plaza de Armas on the Thursday afternoon, when fifteen saints go round the square on their decorated litters. For a view over the crowd, book a table on a restaurant balcony above the square.
26 May to 3 Jun 2027. Times are approximate and can change from year to year.
Each parish walks its image down Calle Santa Clara, past the Plaza San Francisco and into the cathedral. Stand on Calle Santa Clara or the Plaza San Francisco to see them pass.
Mass in the forecourt of the cathedral, then the consecrated host goes round the square in a silver carriage.
The saints follow the host round the edge of the Plaza de Armas, each with its band and dancers.
The images go round the square once more. Then each parish carries its saint home.
Each image rides a decorated litter on the shoulders of its parish, dressed in its finest robes. Each comes with its own band of musicians and troupe of dancers, and the images compete to be chosen the best of all.
There are no tickets: you stand in the square. Between processions, stalls on the Plaza San Francisco, three blocks away, sell chiri uchu, the cold plate made for the feast.
The feast runs over a week, in three processions. On the Wednesday afternoon each parish walks its saint into the centre, down Calle Santa Clara and past the Plaza San Francisco, and into the cathedral. Watch for San Sebastián and San Jerónimo, whose parishes race each other there.
Spend Thursday on the square. Mass is said in the forecourt of the cathedral in the morning, and the consecrated host goes round the square in a silver carriage. The fifteen images follow it round the edge of the square, each with its band and dancers, and go back into the cathedral after a blessing in the late afternoon.
The images stay in the cathedral for eight days, the octave. On the following Thursday they go round the square once more and are carried home to their parishes.
Ask before you photograph the bearers or the dancers, and keep your flash off near the images. Carry cash for the chiri uchu stalls on the Plaza San Francisco.
Book a room in the historic centre for the Wednesday and Thursday nights. From there the square is a short walk.
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