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The Trompo and Zaranda Festival (Festival del Trompo y La Zaranda), which is celebrated in Puerto Carreño during Holy Week, is a characteristic celebration of the eastern Colombian plains, held in different towns in the region such as Cabuyaro and Puerto López (Meta), Montañas del Totumo ( Casanare) or even in the Venezuelan plains.
The Puerto Carreño festival, as inferred from its name, pays tribute to two traditional games of the plains on holy days: the trompo, generally made with a zarrapio stick, and the" zaranda", made from a hollow fruit of the same name, to which a stick is inserted on which a rope is wound that makes it rotate.
In the "Llanera" tradition, the game of spinning top and zaranda is in turn a courtship game between men, who spin the tops, and women, in charge of dancing the zaranda.
During the Puerto Carreño festival, different contests take place for both adults and boys and girls in which they compete in categories such as largest, smallest spinning top or best decorated zaranda. The festival seeks to keep this tradition alive among the youngest, so workshops on making tops and zarandas are held and children are taught the correct way to make them dance.
