A quick guide to Loja holiday and festival dates

Festival parade

Loja has no shortage of holidays to honor and celebrate. To begin with, throughout the country there are multiple Independence days for various cities - some celebrated nationally and some only locally. Then, in addition to holidays, there are festivals and special events that are annual affairs of note. It can be difficult to keep track of them all, especially since some are "moving targets" with dates of observances not necessarily being the same as the historical dates. Here is a list of Lojan-celebrated holidays and events throughout the year...

Date	Event
1 Jan	New Year's Day
Feb or Mar	Carnaval (Mardis Gras)
20 Mar	March Equinox | Pawkar Raymi
Mar or Apr - Easter Week	Holy (Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday
1 May	Labor Day | May Day
24 May	Battle of Pichincha | Independence Day
21 Jun	June Solstice | Inti Raymi
24 Jul	Simón Bolívar's Birthday
10 Aug	Independence Day (National holiday)
15 Aug	Pilgrimage of La Virgen del Cisne
Last week Aug & 1st week Sep	Gran Feria of Loja
23 Sep	September Equinox | Killa Raymi
9 Oct	Independence of Guayaquil
Last week Oct	International Music Festival in Loja
31 Oct	Day of the National Emblem
1 Nov	All Saint's Day
2 Nov	All Soul's Day | Day of the Dead
3 Nov	Independence of Cuenca
18 Nov	Independence of Loja  (Local holiday)
3rd week Nov	Festival of Living Arts Loja + Off Festival
8 Dec	Foundation of Loja   (Local holiday)
21 Dec	December Solstice | Kapak Raymi
25 Dec	Christmas Day
31 Dec	New Year's Eve | burning of Año Viejo figures