Willkakuti

Names for the day

Willkakuti is the name English speakers use most. In Aymara it means the return of the sun. Machaq Mara, another Aymara name, means new year, and the sources record three further names: Pacha Kuti, Jach'a Laymi and Mara T'aqa. Spanish speakers call the observance Año Nuevo Andino Amazónico, the Andean-Amazonic New Year, a phrase that reaches out to Andean and Amazonian peoples generally rather than to Aymara speakers alone. The day is described as an Aymara celebration, and the names it carries are Aymara words.

The June solstice

The date never moves: 21 June. In the southern hemisphere that day is the winter solstice, when the night runs longest and the sun stands at its lowest. After it, daylight lengthens again, which is the turn the Aymara name greets. The same date opens a new year in the Aymara calendar, and years in that count are numbered: the sources note that 2013 was year 5521. Willkakuti falls in the same month every year, on a fixed date.

A public holiday

In 2009 Bolivia declared Willkakuti a national holiday. The government of Evo Morales made the decision, and it brought the Aymara new year into the country's official calendar. Before that step the sources record no national standing for the day, and no earlier date for its beginning. What they describe is an Aymara celebration kept across the Andes. The 2009 declaration is the earliest event connected with the observance that the sources give.

Tiwanaku and other sites

Tiwanaku in Bolivia is the place the sources name as the hub of the celebration, and it is there that the largest marking of the day happens. Willkakuti is not confined to one location. In 2013 it was marked in more than two hundred places. The sources list Uyuni, Samaypata, Inka Raqay and Inkallaqta among them. The spread of sites points to a date kept in many communities at once rather than at a single place.

How Willkakuti is kept

The day belongs to Aymara people and to other Andean communities who join them. Where it is a public holiday in Bolivia, many people travel to be with family and to take part. The biggest gathering forms at Tiwanaku, named as the hub of the celebration. Elsewhere the day is marked locally; in 2013 it happened in more than two hundred places. Chile keeps the date as well, and so does the Puno region in southern Peru.

When and where

It comes once a year, on 21 June. That is the winter solstice south of the equator, the longest night of the southern year. The Aymara calendar numbers its own years, so the same day is also a new year: 2013 was year 5521 in that count.

The day belongs to Bolivia first, where it is a public holiday. Chile keeps it as well, and so does the Puno region in southern Peru. In Bolivia the strongest focus is Tiwanaku. In 2013 the observance reached more than two hundred places, among them Uyuni, Samaypata, Inka Raqay and Inkallaqta.

What Willkakuti means

The name carries the meaning: the sun comes back. Aymara people meet the longest night of the year as the start of a new cycle, and Machaq Mara, new year, says this plainly. The date also belongs to a longer count, since the Aymara calendar reached year 5521 in 2013. Season, calendar and community come together in one observance.

Questions people ask about Willkakuti

See also

IntiThe Inca sun deity, honoured with temples, offerings and the June festival Inti RaymiSimbang GabiA nine-day series of early morning Masses held in the Philippines to prepare for Christmas.Qoyllur Rit'iAn Andean mountain pilgrimage uniting indigenous star lore and Catholic devotionTurrónA festive Mediterranean nut-and-honey confection shared at Christmas and local feasts

Good reading and sources

• Willkakuti on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.