PAWKAR RAYMI

March 21st

It is one of the four main festivals of the Andean people that are celebrated in the town of los
pastos, every March 21. Where youth and the flourishing of life are commemorated, on this day
rituals are performed with water and flowers accompanied by Andean instruments such as: the
quena, the rondador, zampoña, drum with the aim of honoring and reflecting gratitude towards
the natural elements. .

Flowering time of Pacha Mama, based on the annual agricultural cycle that is based on the spring
equinox and is celebrated on March 21, is the time to start tasting the

first fruits "tender grains" emerged from the Pachamama and it is celebrated with great solemnity
every year, where it seeks to keep alive the traditions that represent the connection and harmony
with nature (Pachamama) Pawkar Raymi is a Quichua term that means' many colors / polychromy'.
This meaning is due to the fact that, during the festival, all the products that the land gives are
exhibited, which makes the celebration very colorful.

According to the Andean worldview, every March 21 the spring equinox is considered by ancestral
peoples as an opportunity for human beings to "enter into a harmonious relationship with oneself,
with the family, with nature, with the cosmos and with the divinities." conducive to being reborn
and recreating

KOLLA RAYMI

It is the first ritual or agricultural festival of the year, also known as the Autumn Equinox, it is
celebrated on September 21 and, taking energies from the Pacha Mama, homage is paid to the
symbol of fertility and to the woman because she is in charge of delivering life to the universe.
Commitments are made to start a ritual agricultural year in the best way, dreams and good wishes
are sown, hoping to see not only material fruits flourish but also good energy within family and
social life.

According to the Andean worldview, the September equinox represents the sowing season, a
season in which the earth is observed in all its splendor, integrity and fertility, it is shown virgin,
predisposed to receive the seed.

After a period of rest of the land throughout the month of August, in September the preparation
of the soil for a new sowing begins, mainly corn.

INTI RAYMI - PAKAL A COSMIC PARTY

The Inti Raymi in the Kichwa language and Pakal in the Pastures language is the festival in the sun,
performed in gratitude to the Pacha Mama (mother earth) for the crops received. The winter
solstice calls for stomping, turning in circles with strength and courage to keep the earth awake,
and for it to receive the offerings of human beings. It is the change of cycle with the beginning of
the harvests.

It is commemorated on June 21, the date on which the sun is closest to the earth, causing the
shortest day and the longest night.

The Sun is, for the Andean peoples, the star king, an object of worship and adoration. But not as a
god, but as the mentor of all life on earth since his rays evaporate the waters that form

clouds and cause rain, imparts light and warming of the earth, is the living manifestation of our
millennial worldview of our existence and is a spiritual celebration, a feast of

social participation full of symbolic wealth, considered as a time of renewal of energies, of unity,
strengthening of families and communities, their movements and dances in circles

They represent the unity, the strength of their people and at the same time the movement of the
earth of rotation and translation. INTI RAYMI –PAKAL is not only a name, it is not only a party; it is
the essence of our roots, of all that we are now and of what together we can be in the future;
magical time, of peace, harmony, where the sacred dialogue is established, a deep inter-
relationship, which generates a material and spiritual link Man-Cosmos-Nature.

Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) has completed its agro-ecological cycle and has nourished us again
with its fruits, so it is also time to prepare ourselves with an attitude of solidarity, fairness, respect,
harmony and balance with Nature to reward it with gratitude, with rejoicing, music, dances,

with the same wisdom of our yachakuna (sages) and with the same feeling of reciprocity and life
of our native peoples

The festival of the sun, called by the taitas and the grandparents "Inti Raymi", is a tradition that
nowadays does not go unnoticed in many populations of Colombia, especially communities such
as the Pastos and Quillasingas of the south of Nariño, where year after year In the summer
solstice, which begins in many towns on June 19 and lasts for three days, children, youth and
adults suspend their

daily activities to celebrate and thank Mother Earth and Father Sun for the harvests and prosperity
in the homes