Culture of Chile

Food and drink

  • La once — The meal that replaced dinner for many Chileans: bread, tea and something on top at seven, avocado on everything, a name nobody can explain, and an invitation that really means stay.

Festivals and celebrations

  • Fiestas Patrias: el dieciocho — The week Chile stops for the eighteenth: dance halls built of wood and branches, a handkerchief dance everybody learned at school, empanadas by the million, kites over the hills, and a drink named after an earthquake.

Customs and etiquette

  • La hora latina: the elastic hour — An invitation for eight means you may arrive from eight. The skill is knowing when the time is literal — and there is a phrase for saying so.

Literature and storytelling

Places and landscapes

History

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