Aymara New Year Celebration in Tiwanaku Bolivia

In 2009 the Bolivian government passed a law decreeing that the Aymara New Year will now be a national public holiday in Bolivia. This winter solstice festival has been celebrated on 21 June of each year in Tiwanaku for several years now and is becoming yet another of the many Andean tourist attractions in Bolivia. The new law, which orders all Bolivians to observe and cease all commercial activities on this purely Andean holiday (which comes shortly after the passing of another law ordering all Bolivians to fly the whipala - the Aymara flag), has angered much of the non-Aymara Bolivian population. The Bolivian Ministry of Culture is promoting Aymara New Year activities in several cities throughout Bolivia. To find out more, read about the Aymara New Year here.