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News > Latin America

Inti Raymi Sun Festival to Be Celebrated Across the Andes

  • People at the Inti Raymi Festival in Cuzco, Peru

    People at the Inti Raymi Festival in Cuzco, Peru

Published 20 June 2017
Opinion

Every year, nations across the South American Andes celebrate Inti Raymi, an ancient Incan tradition marking the end of the Winter Solstice and honoring the sun.  

Inti Raymi, translated from Quechua as the Festival of the Sun, was one of the most important religious celebrations for the Incas, the largest South American Indigenous civilization.

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It's based on ancient Inca mythology and retells the origin of the Incas. Celebrated every June, Inti Raymi also marks the beginning of the Inca new year. Historically the celebration lasted 15 days involving dancing and music, among other things.

The Summer Solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year, and the festival honors the Sun and Pachamama, or Mother Earth, for all past and coming harvests.

One of the major celebrations takes place in Peru's Sacsayhuaman in Cusco, considered one of the wonders of the world.

Because of the persecution of this tradition, which was considered a pagan holiday by the Spanish colonialists, the celebration was largely repressed and was carried out clandestinely in many regions.

As a result of colonization, the Indigenous tradition has syncretically included the celebration of Saint John the Baptist, which Catholics commemorate on the night of June 23.

Since the mid-20th century, there has been a rise in public events honoring the holiday, particularly in Bolivia after the presidential election of Evo Morales. A few years ago, Morales and Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera received the new year in the Andean Amazon in the Tiwanaku remains of the ancient city.

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The largest event in Peru, the Procession of Corpus Christi and the procession of Saints and Virgins in the Plaza de Armas, is attended by more than 50,000 people.

The celebration is said to have been implemented more than six centuries ago in Peru by the Inca cacique Pachacutec, paying tribute to the sun god and celebrating the end of the winter in the capital Tawantinsuyo.

In Ecuador, representatives of Indigenous communities named Gabriela Rivadeneria as a Gran Marshal of the festival a few years ago. "What a pleasure to find ourselves celebrating our traditional festivals. Inti Raymi is one of the most important cultural manifestations that our Andean peoples share honoring the solstice when the sun awakens earth," she stated.

In the province of Imbaburra for instance, celebrations start on June 21 with a traditional bath in the waterfalls of each community with a beverage called "chicha," and a dance in traditional costumes during a week of the sounds of sanjuanito, cumbia and other genres.

Meanwhile, in Chile, the Mapuche people's variant of the Indigenous sun festival takes place between June 21 and June 24, and the concluding day's festival is known as We Tripantu.

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