Bolivia, 2010, Tunupa’s Salt Lake, 3.650 metres above sea level. The Aymara, Bolivian indigenous group, celebrate the New Year, in coincidence — not by hazard — with the winter solstice. Dances and traditional rituals take place with the very first sunlight, “Pachamama” and “Inti Tata” the central deities worshipped; the sacrifice of a holy “llama” closes the ritual. Happy 5.518 to all of you. But are they really that many? Really impossible to say, given the poor historical sources. And what difference does it make, anyway? Sure is that ever since 1492 some centuries have gone by. And sure these have not been happy times for the Aymara ethnic group, to whom was forbidden the celebration of traditional ancients rituals. Letting aside the exact computing, the 21th of June 2010 the Aymara’s New Year’s Eve has been celebrated, the beginning of a new year in the Andean world.
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