Bolivians mark Andean New Year with ancestral rituals at winter solstice
Dozens gathered in Bolivia’s Cochabamba region to celebrate the Andean-Amazonian New Year with traditional rituals honouring Pachamama.
People gathered on Sunday at the ceremonial site of Inka Raqay, in the municipality of Sipe Sipe, to welcome the first rays of the sun during the winter solstice and celebrate the Andean-Amazonian New Year 5534. The event featured ancestral ceremonies, traditional music and dances, as well as offerings to Mother Earth, reflecting long-standing cultural practices linked to the agricultural cycle.
Organiser Agustin Arellano described the ritual as a millennia-old tradition that has been gradually revived since the 1990s. As part of the ceremony, participants carried out the ‘wilancha’, a ritual sacrifice of llamas, offering blood along with the heart and head to Pachamama as a sign of gratitude and in hopes of a prosperous planting season. Within the Andean worldview, the practice symbolises renewal and the continuity of natural cycles.
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