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Published: September 22nd 2012
Us Chileans, wherever we are and whatever we're doing, will always celebrate our Independence Day (or at least try to), even if we just have a small get-together with friends, to commemorate the 18th of September of 1810 when Chile declared its independence from the Spanish crown (while the Spanish king Ferdinand VII was captive of the French). This is the day in which the process of our independence began and thus started a violent period in which the patriots fought the royalists. The real independence day was February 12th, 1818, in which the act of Independence was signed. And there was a still a Spanish stronghold until 1826 in the Island of Chiloé.
But enough of history. We celebrate that day in Chile and the celebrations usually last at least a few days. No matter where we are in the world, we don't pass the opportunity to celebrate as well.
I've been living in Port Douglas, QLD, for over 4 months now and even though there are a few Chilean people in Port Douglas, I don't really know them so I decided to spend it with my friends. What I was thinking of doing at first, was a
small gathering with my closest friends; have a small bbq (cooked Chilean style, which a few have already tried and have grown fond of), a few drinks and not much more. But I wasn't expecting the awesome celebration I ended up having.
A few of the people I invited, somehow started getting very excited with the idea of celebrating this Chilean Independence Day and started inviting more people, which in turn started googling about Chile, looking up recipes, learning about the origin of the name and flag, etc. I was oblivious to all of this and wasn't thinking much about the 18th; I was just going to improvise a bbq that same day. I also had the flu for 4 days, so I wasn't really thinking about the 18th that much.
Melina, one of my flatmates (Argentinan) came up with her mom's recipe to make "empanadas" (pastries stuffed with a mix of minced meat, egg, 1 olive and onions) and a friend of hers, Lauren, looked up in the internet"Chilean recipes" and came up with a salsa called "pebre", which is made of coriander, chopped onion, olive oil, pureed spicy chilly and tomatos (totally ad hoc to the
occasion). I bought a lot of meat and prepared the Chilean bbq. We had lot of food and drinks to celebrate. The "empanadas" and the "pebre" were done to perfection, by the way.
I asked some of the people I invited to try to dress up with red, white and blue (colors of the Chilean flag) and a lot of them did. They came up with really creative Chilean designs, so the overall commitment to the celebration was great, with painted T-shirts, painted tatoos, etc. That was one of the things friends and family from Chile most commented on after seeing the photos.
The start that day was a bit hectic; we finished work at around 5:30pm, went to the supermarket to buy everything and got to the bbq area in 4 Mile Beach (place where we always have the bbqs) at about 8pm.
In total, about 15-20 people showed up and we stayed until around midnight (almost everyone was working the next day). During the evening, a lot of chatting, drinking, eating and also chanting. At one point we got everyone gathered around the bbq and I gave a little speech/toast and then went on to
teach everyone a typical Chilean chant (similar to the Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi). The chant (I guess I can call it "the C-H-I") is totally representative of Chileans and can be heard especially in sports competitions. There's a video on this post of me teaching the chant and another one in which we actually got it right. That was very cool.
The celebrations totally exceeded my initial expectations and I had an excellent celebration of the 18th, much better than a lot that I've had in Chile actually. We stayed there until around midnight, because most of us had to work the next day. In Chile, the celebrations this year went on for 5 days...
Starting the BBQ Discussing the Chilean chant C-H-I Before the toast Toast Practicing the Chilean chant C-H-I
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DFAW
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Fiestas Patrias
Veo que lo pasaste en grande y muy bien. Nosotros estuvimos en Ocoa con los Lira y los Arellano el 18 y al dia siguiente llegó Jose y la Vale con amigos. Que bueno que todos tus amigos hayan vibrado con Chile. No se les va a olvidar. Vi uno de tus videos submarinos. ¿Son con el device que te compraste para tu cámara? Super claros y buenos. Cuidate. Avisame cuando recibas la bandera.