The Pawkar Raymi Peguche was certified as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ecuador

With multi-colored flowers, varied fruits, and traditional Andean dances and music, it was reborn on Sunday, February 20 in Ecuador, the Pawkar Raymi, the blossoming festivalwhere the peasant communities of the Andes celebrate the arrival, one more year, of the fruits that the pachamama gives them.

In Peguche, an indigenous community kichwa from the canton of Otavalo, in the province of Imbabura (north), this was not just any Pawkar Raymi, and that was noticeable first thing in the streets.

From the first hour the neighbors had dressed up in their traditional clothing for one of their most important days in the Andean agricultural calendar.

Not only did they return to celebrate the Pawkar Raymi after two years forced to cancel it due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also received recognition as a festival of national interest and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ecuador by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and the National Institute of Cultural Heritage.

For this, the Minister of Culture and Heritage, María Elena Machuca, who was designated as the “achik mama” (godmother) of the Pawkar Raymi 2022, came to this community, 54 kilometers north of Quito.

Ancestral festival Kamari Ista de Canelos is already Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ecuador

“This recognition comes from the importance that Pawkar Raymi has for Peguche, for the province and for the country. Ecuador is rich in our cultural diversity, where each festival connects us directly to where we come from, to our matrix,” Machuca pointed out.

Once this milestone was achieved, the authorities and residents of Peguche were already timidly but ambitiously considering the possibility of perhaps taking the next step and tempting international recognition to give this festivity even more of a tourist showcase.

a prosperous year

The abundant rains this year in the Ecuadorian Andes promise good harvests in the coming months, as was shown by the baskets overflowing with fruits and other agricultural products carried by the women of the different delegations that toured the community up and down.

That foreseeable good year in the countryside was reason for the residents of Peguche to celebrate this Pawkar Raymi with even more revelry, so much so that not even a fleeting downpour came to interrupt the music.

“Juyayay Pawkar Raymi! (Long live the blossoming festival!), shouted the leaders of each delegation, who wore their faces painted white while throwing flower petals at them from the balconies of the houses.

Nor did the bombards and other pyrotechnic materials stop with the raindrops that marked the route that each troupe was following, from its place of origin to the football stadium, the nerve center of the entire party, where the entire population ended up gathered.

There, entire families, from children to the elderly, decked out in their representative and colorful clothing, danced to start a full calendar of activities that coincides with the carnival and sometimes extends until the equinox.

two weeks of partying

This year the celebrations will continue until March 5and among the most anticipated activities is a soccer championship in which teams from the region participate, and whose champion will win a replica of the World Cup.

Although Peguche has become known in recent years in Ecuador for its Pawkar Raymi celebrations, there are several points in the Andean highlands where these dates are cause for joy before the first fruits and agricultural products that guarantee the subsistence of many Andean families.

The Pawkar Raymi is not the only great celebration of the Andean agricultural calendar, marked by the different stages of agricultural production such as planting and harvesting, and which has Inti Raymi as the other great festival of the year, coinciding with the solstice of June. (I)