Inti Raymi – Sun Festivity

Inti Raymi: an ancient festival in honor of the sun god that continues to be celebrated in Peru

feast of the sun (June 21, winter solstice), ancestral feast. Where the Quechuas worshiped the sun god, performing different ceremonies in the city of Cusco,
​Currently, every year, on June 24, the city of Cusco (Peru) celebrates the Inti Raymi. A party in honor of the Incas, the sun – Inti. This festival attracts many visitors from nationals and foreigners to the ancient capital of Peru. To commemorate one of the most important activities on the Peruvian calendar.

The Inti Raymi – Feast of the Sun, in the Inca Time.

In the time of the Inca rulers. The majority of people who lived in the four cardinal points (theirs – regions) gathered in the capital of Peru. To celebrate the festival of the sun – inti Raymi. The Inca Sapa (Inca king), the nobles. The people and the priests of the empire, gathered in Haukaypata (the great square in the center of the city) to witness the parade of the mummies of the ancestor rulers wrapped in cloth, carried to Cusco from temples and shrines. A large number of llamas were sacrificed throughout the course of the celebrations. The celebrations lasted from sunrise to sunset. There were special dances for the occasion, large amounts of coca leaves were used in the ceremony. The Inti Raymi was one of the greatest festivals of the year, and in it all the attendees participated with a spiritual feeling.

The Spanish invaders prohibit the celebration of the festival of the sun.

​When the Spanish invaded the Inca empire, they declared the celebration of the festival of the sun – Inti Raymi pagan and contrary to the church. They burned the sacred mummies of the rulers, and in 1572, they definitively prohibited the feast of the sun. However, every year in the month of June (winter solstice), at the end of June in the southern hemisphere, the inhabitants of the Andes continued to celebrate the feast of the sun in secret, from 1542 to 1824.

The Inti Raymi in our days.

In the year 1944, the festival of the sun – Inti Raymi resurfaced again. The idea came from the historian Humberto Vidal Unda. For the population of the city of Cusco, the winter solstice celebrations at the end of June are honoring the beginning of the return of the sun to the “Pachamama”, Mother Earth of Quechua. The original language of Peru, spoken by about 3, 2 million Peruvians.
Despite undergoing many variations, the festival still retains all its majesty and glory. The festivities begin in the morning at the koricancha or temple of the sun. Where the Inca inaugurates the festivities invoking praises to the sun god, Inti. From this place the celebration continues with the royal procession at the head, towards the parade ground. In this place the ceremony continues, with the meeting of 2 worlds, where the current authority (mayor) meets the Inca and they talk about the projects for the city. Next, the shaman ceremonially reads the sacred coca leaves to predict the fate of the city next year.

​​The Inca will perform the last ceremonies at the so-called Inca fortress of Sacsayhuamán. Which is the last place of the festival, including the sacrifice of the llama, the ceremony of chicha. And pronouncing the last words in Quechua before the dance festival of the four regions of the Inca empire.