RE: Is this nearby PLE ? - No!!!To all:
Projects in the international arena are challenging as they always involve lessons in geography, politics and other things.
The Q'oyllur Riti is described as the "greatest indigenous pilgrimmage in the Americas" that takes place in the 1st week of May. The MAIN CEREMONY is held at the foot of Mount Ausangate which towers 15,416 feet above sea level and is located EAST of Cuzco BUT northwest of Lake Titicaca in the SOUTHERN most part of Peru near the Bolivian border.
PLE's property is in northern Peru near the southernmost border with Ecuador. (Whew! That's a relief! So, thanks for scaring all of us and sending us scrambling for our Atlases of South America).
The LINK to the site that describes Peru's major festivals is as follows - https://www.visitperu.com/festivities.htm
The above site is quite informative as it describes TEN MAJOR Festivals (Q'oyllur Riti is NO. 7) in Peru plus a host of other touristy type information and is probably worthwhile saving to your "Favoriites" for handy reference.
If you go to the bottom of the page that comes up, the Q'ollyur Riti festival is FOURTH up from the bottom of the page.
I wasn't sure if I could "Cut and Paste" it BUT I did manage to do so below (++++) for your handy reference if you didn't want to check out all the other festivals etc.
It's still PLE "All Ahead - FULL!!!"
Cheer$$$,
LB
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Q'oyllur Riti. The greatest indigenous pilgrimage in the Americas
Quispicanchis (Cuzco)
Date: May (1 st week)
Each year the people of the district of Ocongate (Quispicanchis) perfom a ritual whose external aspect appears to be the image of Christ, but whose real objective is to bring Man closer to Nature .
The ritual, associated with the fertility of the land and the worship of Apus, the spirits of the mountains, forms part of the greatest festival of native Indian nations in the hemisphere: Qoyllur Rit'i.
The main ceremony is held at the foot of Mount Ausangate, at 4,700 meters (15,416 feet), above sea level, where temperatures often plunge below freezing. The ritual brings thousands of pilgrims, including shepherds, traders and the merely curious who gather at the shrine at Sinakara. Popular belief has it that the infant Christ, dressed as a shepherd, appeared to a young highland Indian boy, Marianito Mayta, and they quickly became friends. When Mayta's parents found them dressed in rich tunics, they informed the local parish priest, Pedro de Landa, who attempted in vain to capture the infant Christ who had disappeared and left behind only a stone. Marianito died immediately, and the image of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i appeared on the stone.
Today, the festival starts off with the day of the Holy Trinity, when more than 10,000 pilgrims climb to the snowline, accompanied by all sorts of dancers in full costume (chauchos, qollas, pabluchas or ukukus and various mythical characters). The ukukus, or bears, are the guardians of the Lord the Apu mountain spirits, and apachetas, stone cairns built along the way by pilgrims to atone for their sins. The ukukus maintain order during religious ceremonies. A group of hefty queros, members of what is probably Peru´s purest Quechua community, dress up as 'pabluchas and set out for the mountaintop, at 6,362 meters (20,867 feet), in search of the Snow Star which is reputedly buried within the mountain.
On their way back down to their communities. they haul massive blocks of ice on their backs for the symbolic irrigation of their lands with holy water from the Ausangate.