The Baroque festivity has lived on longer in Spanish America than anywhere else. México and Perú are particularly significant in this respect, for their celebrations still retain ceremonies and decor which show evidence of their roots in the Baroque tradition. These can be explained because, in truth, there was no Age of Enlightenment. They stem from deeply trascendental peoples, from a festive tradition grounded on a profound religiousness and an optimistic outlook on life. The analysis of the principal baroque celebrations -civilian, religious, and festive- in the 17th and 18th centuries in México City and Lima show that, for these societies, the best way to celébrate a festivity was to sublimate the affirmation of life in the beauty of forms. The festive element was expressed in and through art. Festive art was the quintessential expression of the Baroque, for, as Octavio Paz remarks, it united in a supreme contradiction, the apotheosis and the destruction of forms.