Wikipedia
Quyllurit'i ( Quechua quyllu rit'i, "bright white snow") is a spiritual and religious festival held annually at the Sinakara Valley in the Cusco Region of Peru. The Catholic Church's official position is that the festival is in honor of the Lord of Quyllurit'i . According to the Church the celebration originated in 1780, when a young native herder called Mariano Mayta befriended a mestizo boy called Manuel on the mountain Qullqipunku. Thanks to Manuel, Mariano's herd prospered, so his father sent him to buy clothes for the two boys in Cusco. Mariano took a sample of Manuel's clothes but could not find anything similar because that kind of cloth was only worn by an archbishop. Upon this discovery, the archbishop of Cusco sent a party to investigate but when they tried to grab Manuel, he became a bush with an image of Christ hanging from it. Thinking they had harmed his friend, Mariano died on the spot and was buried under a rock. An image of Christ painted over this boulder became known as the Lord of Quyllurit'i, which means Lord of Star Snow.
Contrary to the Catholic myth, the festival is known to the local descendants of the indigenous population of the Andes as a celebration of the stars. In particular the Pleiades, which disappears from view in April and reappears in June and signifies a time of transition from old to new and the upcoming harvest and New Year, which for the locals begins on the Winter Solstice. The festival, from the pre-Columbian perspective, has been celebrated for hundreds if not thousands of years.
The Quyllurit'i festival attracts a large number of peasants from the surrounding regions, divided in two moieties: Paucartambo groups Quechuas from the agricultural regions to the northwest of the sanctuary andQuispicanchis, which includes Aymaras from the pastoral regions to the southeast. Both moieties make an annual pilgrimage to the feast bringing large troupes of dancers and musicians in four main styles: ch'unchu, qulla, ukuku and machula. Besides peasant pilgrims, attendants include middle class Peruvians and foreign tourists. The festival takes place in late May or early June, to coincide with the full moon, one week before the Christian feast of Corpus Christi. It consists of a number of processions and dances in and around the Lord of Quyllurit'i shrine. The main event for the Church is carried out by ukukus who climb glaciers over Qullqipunku to bring back crosses and blocks of ice which are said to be medicinal. The main event for the indigenous non-Christian population who still celebrate their old spiritual beliefs is the rising of the sun on the Monday morning where tens of thousands kneel down to the first rays of light as the sun rises above the horizon.