The Great Military Parade, a posthumous tribute to the largest arms exhibition in our country was canceled in the present year 2020, the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) prevented this patriotic tradition in national holidays from being carried out as a precaution to become a point of maximum contagion, due to the agglomeration of people.
The Great Military Parade has its origins in the 19th century, when the parades were held on the 28th of each July, for this, we go back to the year 1921, when this activity was carried out in the Plaza Bolívar located in the Congress of the Republic.
The purpose of the Great Military Parade is to represent the presence of the military and the Republic’s army, «a fundamental component for the country,» according to historian Antonio Zapata. And «an identification between the State and the Armed Forces, which represent the idea that they are institutions that protect the State and that it is there to protect it from any deviation.»
However, over the years and decades this historical tradition has had some interruptions, which paradoxically have been related to issues such as the disease, such is the case, that in 2009, the late former President of the Republic, Alan García suspended the Great Military Parade to prevent the spread of the AH1N1 virus, moving the event to December 8, the day of the battle of Ayacucho and the day of the Peruvian Army.
From that historical premise (and others) is that on July 29, the Great Military Parade was not carried out in our country, this in the framework of the fight against the coronavirus (covid – 19) in our country that until Today, it is still in force and that it has taken the lives of thousands of men and women in its path and that it has prostrated innumerable patients in the ICU.
According to TBH figures, until July 29, 400 683 confirmed cases and 18 816 deaths due to the virus from the Asian country have been reported. That is why that tradition that brought together the most solemn military forces of the Peruvian army, navy and air force, the Peruvian National Police, Civil Defense, among others, have had to reserve their traditional manifestations every year to many Peruvians had us used to it.
In the meantime, the question remains whether, by the end of the year, our country will be able to enjoy a more optimistic outlook than has been witnessed in recent years, as a result of the pandemic, or if, as now, efforts should be joined, or continue with a targeted quarantine.