Quechua Relgious Traditions - Niño Punchao
Looking back at the posts here, I realized that with all the mayhem of the protests, then the holiday season, I didn’t post the images from one of the best days I have had since being in Peru.
Back in December, there were celebrations taking place for the solstice, which is very important to the Quechua. The Inca calendar was based on agriculture. As a result, most of the festivities coincided with the position of the sun, moon, and stars.
When the Spanish conquered Peru and installed Catholicism, they set about to replace the Inca religious celebrations with Christian celebrations. This was not unique to Peru. It took place everywhere colonization occurred. Here in the Andes, many of the festivities have morphed into a combined Quechua and Spanish celebration. However, one celebration that was lost until recently, was the celebration of Niño Punchao.
In recent years it has grown in popularity as a new generation of Quechua is working to revive this tradition along with other practices that have been lost or are at risk of being lost. There is not much information about Niño Punchao and I am still trying to learn more from anthropologists I have met here. Many of my friends here have never heard of it.
When I was photographing the events taking place on the summer solstice back in December (southern hemisphere summer), I met one of these groups working to revive this celebration. They invited me back to their hometown of Lucre to eat, drink & dance after the events in Cusco. I overcame my shyness and accepted their offer :)
It was an incredible day and one I will always remember. Especially since it happened just a few days after the violent protests I had documented at the airport.
I learned a lot about what the group is doing and I told them about my project which they were very interested in. As a result, they have invited me to join them on a pilgrimage to the celebration of Qoyllur Riti.
It is an incredible honor to be invited to go to Qoyllur Riti as it is the most important religious celebration for the Quechua people and one of the most important in South America.
I feel very honored to be going. I am quite excited about this trip and I am a little nervous as well. I always get a bit nervous before photographing something big and that is new to me. It will be both physically and mentally challenging. I want to do justice to such an important event, and I also want to appreciate the experience that I will be partaking in.
When you receive this, I will already be on the five-day pilgrimage into the mountains. I look forward to sharing the story of the journey and the photos with you when I can. That will be in a few weeks though because I have another festival to go to immediately upon my return from the pilgrimage.
Wish me luck!
MB
