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The Alasitas festival, held annually in La Paz starting Jan. 24, comes from an Aymara tradition honoring Ekeko, the god of abundance. Today, everyone goes to one of the multiple fairs around town (in front of every church) on opening day to buy miniature versions of all they hope for in the new year: money, food, cars, homes, marriage, jobs, health, etc. They then get them blessed by one of the many Aymara shamans on site before taking them into the church for blessing by the priest. Once blessed, the miniatures must be given away to others before they will become reality during the year. |
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