Día del Mar (''Day of the Sea'') is an annual celebration in Bolivia that observes the loss of

Litoral Department The Department of the Litoral, also known as the Atacama Department and commonly known as the Bolivian coast, was the description of the extent of the Pacific coast of the Atacama Desert included in the territory of Bolivia from its inception in 1 ...

during the 1879–1883

War of the Pacific The War of the Pacific ( es, link=no, Guerra del Pacífico), also known as the Saltpeter War ( es, link=no, Guerra del salitre) and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought ...

with

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. The day is celebrated on the 23 of March, at the conclusion of the week-long ''Semana del Mar'', with a ceremony at La Paz's

Plaza Abaroa Plaza Abaroa (Abaroa Square) is a public space, named in honor of Eduardo Abaroa the Bolivian hero who fought in the War of the Pacific. It is located in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, in the Sopocachi area, among 20 de Octubre, Sánchez Lima, Pe ...

in honor of the war hero

Eduardo Abaroa Eduardo Abaroa Hidalgo (13 October 1838 – 23 March 1879) was Bolivia's foremost hero of the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), which pitted Chile against Bolivia and Peru. He was one of the leaders of the civilian resistance to the Chilean ...

and in parallel ceremonies nationwide. Bolivia considers the Día del Mar an opportunity to reiterate its claims for access to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

that was lost when the country became landlocked following the war. The 1963 iteration of the event was marked by chants and songs against Chile by worker and student groups.

References

{{Irredentism Anti-Chilean sentiment Public holidays in Bolivia March observances Bolivian irredentism