Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

A man greets Inti, the sun, with open palms in Jacha Kollo. A cornerstone of the Morales government is decolonization and the recovery of indigenous practices such as this new year's celebration. Much of South America, including Bolivia, was colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s. Today Bolivia is the South American country with the highest percentage of indigenous citizens.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

The sun's light begins to illuminate the city of La Paz, Bolivia this morning. Andean-Amazonian New Year is a national holiday celebrated in Bolivia on the southern hemisphere's winter solstice. Bolivia's Aymara Indian President Evo Morales declared the solstice a national holiday in 2009.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

After the sun rises, amautas gift celebrants with colorful strings of llama wool and prayers to bring prosperity and good luck in the new year.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

An amauta blesses the crowd at Jacha Kolla with incense. The solstice is traditionally an important time for rural indigenous communities in Bolivia as they end the harvest.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

A musician plays a traditional Andean wooden flute in Jacha Kollo. When it was first promoted by the Bolivian government several years ago this new year celebration was often called Aymara New Year, raising protests that the Aymara are just one of dozens of ethnic groups in Bolivia. The name was later amended to Andean-Amazonian New Year.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

Music accompanies the ceremony in Jacha Kollo, La Paz. This year the new year, which is 5519 in the Aymara calendar, was officially celebrated at dozens of sites around the country. President Evo Morales celebrated at the historic site of Tiwanaku.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

The bonfire at Jacha Kollo is fed with alcohol. In the fire a packet containing a llama fetus, coca leaves, cigarettes and sweets is placed as an offering to the Earth Mother, Pachamama. Yatiris and amautas, indigenous spiritual leaders, speak words of praise to Inti, the sun, and Pachamama, the earth mother, as the fire burns.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

This year celebrations were sponsored by the government at several points around the city of La Paz on June 21. At the lookout point Jacha Kollo in La Paz celebrants begin to build a bonfire near two crosses- the Christian and the Andean.

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Andean-Amazonian New Year Celebration

By:

ICTMN Staff

June 21, 2011

A photo essay at this mornings festivities in celebration of the Andean-Amazonian New Year in Bolivia.

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