For more than a century the Great Military Parade of Chile has been an enduring legacy of the Independence Day holidays in Chile, held in Santiago, Chile's O'Higgins Park on September 19 yearly in honor of the Glories of the Chilean Army with a military parade involving not just the ground forces but by the rest of the Chilean Armed Forces: the Chilean Navy, the Chilean Air Force, and the Carabineros de Chile, also in of the anniversary of the formal inauguration on that day in 1810 of the First Government Junta, which witnessed the first military parade of the independent nation at the Plaza de Armas, Santiago. It is the final act of the national independence celebrations, seen by more people through TV and the Internet, and heard on radio.
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Per Law 2977 of 1915, Army Day is celebrated on the 19th of September in honor of the Army's role in the defense of the Chilean nation, thus the date is dedicated to the Chilean Army and is a national holiday. The parade, however, dates back to 1896.
Brief history
During the long Spanish era in Chile, whenever a new governor-general takes his office in Santiago, a military parade is called by the troops of the city garrison under the Spanish Army.
On Sept. 19, 1810, the formal inauguration of the First Government Junta took place in Santiago which saw the first ever military parade of the new nation.
Another military parade was held on September 28, 1819, in honor of the formal victory in the Chilean War of Independence with units of the Army of the Andes taking part. The parade would move to its present home in 1830 under President Tomas Ovalle, albelt in the then fields of La Pampilla in the Santiago area, where the parade was held with the ceremonies ending in the Plaza de Armas with a Feu de joie. The parades, nicknamed "despejes" by the people, would take a new form in the years ahead.
In 1831, a military exercise was ordered by the government of President Joaquin Prieto on the Pampilla fields, which would witness the first ever parade on September 19 in the following year with Diego Portales taking the salute. The Pampilla area became its permanent home in 1842 when President Manuel Bulnes acquired lands in the area for the annual parades and military exercises, and was transformed into a military installation in 1845. It was turned into the O'Higgins Park (then the Cousiño Park) in 1873, thanks to the efforts of Luis Cousiño, who, inspired by the parks he had seen in Europe before, decided that he would help adapt it to the Chilean situation. He asked Manuel Arana to design it, who then added a Field of Mars to the design of the park for the annual military parades, and it has been held there every since. Another big parade was held in 1884 as the War of the Pacific was then in its final months as the Army pushed on its final offensive.
The president day parade, in the Prussian manner, officially began on September 19, 1896, even through in the late 1880s the parades held at the Field of Mars at O'Higgins Park, thanks to the efforts of the Prussian military mission to Chile under Captain Emil Körner, showed signs of Prussianization and modernization little by little. With the victory in the Chilean Civil War, in which Körner and the pro-modernization officers supported the Congress, the Prussian practice began to be standardized. The parade of 1896 witnessed Chilean Army units parading in the German manner, per companies and troops at first, and later by battalions and squadrons. Two years later, as the German-trained artillery and cavalry made their walk, trot and gallop passes at the tribune one pass at a time, the goose step made its debut in the parade, with the Army NCO School being the first to adopt the practice that would later be the Chilean Army standard by the 1901 parade, which was also the first since conscription was formally introduced. The parade of 1902 was the first in which foreign contingents marched past; in celebration of the recently signed Pacts of May, reprensentatives from the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic marched past at the tribune at the parade field for the first time. Despite the tragedies that happened in 1910 as the nation celebrated its centennial year, the parade that year went on as planned, with Emiliano Figueroa, then acting president, receiving the salute from the units of the army and the navy, in his first parade as chief executive.
The parade's September 19 date was officially sanctioned in 1915 as Chilean Army Day (Dia de las Glorias del Ejercito) per a presidential decree by President Ramón Barros Luco and Interior and Public Security Minister Pedro Nicolás Montenegro, then confirmed by Law 2977 by the National Congress, celebrating the Army, the first full day of the full independent nation, and the 1810 inauguration of its first government. Luco took the salute on that year's parade, the first since it was made official. It has remained the same ever since, with the latter additions of the Air Force and the Carabineros de Chile in the following years, and evolving with the changing time despite having cancelled twice in 1924 and 1973 (the parade of 1932 was held on September 17 for the only time in its history).