''Wiñoy Tripantu'' is the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...

celebration of the return of the sun and is sometimes called the Mapuche

New Year New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...

.
"Celebración del "Wiñol xipantu": Inicio de un nuevo ciclo de la naturaleza".
(Beca de investigación).'' Informe final 2003. Centro de Comunicaciones Mapuce. Jvfken Mapu. Ramón Curivil. It takes place on the

June solstice The June solstice is the solstice on Earth that occurs annually between 20 and 22 June according to the Gregorian calendar. In the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice is the summer solstice (the day with the longest period of daylight), whil ...

(the

Winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winte ...

in the Southern Hemisphere), the shortest day of the year in the indigenous home of the Mapuche people. Frequently, ''We Tripantu'' (

Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

tr: new year) is used as a synonym for ''Wiñoy Tripantu'', Loncon Antileo, Elisa (2012)
«Wüñoy Tripantü. El regreso del sol para iniciar un nuevo ciclo con la Naturaleza»
''Departamento de Educación. Facultad de Humanidades''. Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Archived from the original on 28 August 2012. Visited 23 June 2018. but some speakers of the Mapuche language

use ''We Tripantu'' to refer to the New Year of the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

(January 1) and ''Wiñoy Tripantu'' for the celebration of the June solstice. Many variations of the term ''Wiñoy Tripantu'' exist, such as ''Wiñol xipantu'', ''Wvñol xipantu'', ''Wiñol Txipantu'' and ''Wüñoy Tripantü''. It is the Mapuche equivalent to the

Inti Raymi The Inti Raymi (Quechua for "Inti festival") is a traditional religious ceremony of the Inca Empire in honor of the god Inti (Quechua for "sun"), the most venerated deity in Inca religion. It was the celebration of the winter solstice – the s ...

. The ''

Pachamama Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an " Earth Mother" type goddess, Dransart, Penny. (1992) "Pachamama: The Inka Earth Mother of the Long Sweeping Garment." ''Dress and Gender: Making ...

'' (

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

tr: Mother Earth), Nuke Mapu (''uke' Mapu'') begins to bloom fertilized by Sol, from the Andean heights to the southern tip. Antü (mapuche),

Inti INTI International University & Colleges are private university colleges located in Malaysia. The main campus was initially known as INTI University College until 31 May 2010 when the Higher Education Ministry announced its upgrade to universi ...

(

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

), or Rapa (''rapanui'') Sol, the sun starts to come back to earth, after the longest night of the year; it's winter Solstice. Everything starts to bloom again. ''Wiñoy Tripantu'' is celebrated with a ceremony on the shortest day of the year, during which various families or even various communities may come together to celebrate communally. All members of the community have a participatory role in the ceremony, which may involve songs, dances, a communal meal, and offerings to the land. Typically, a wood fire is lit, which traditionally is kept burning until sunrise the following day. Elders of the family or community tell stories with philosophical, cultural, and political undertones, as a method of transmitting Mapuche culture and history from one generation to the next. The ceremony ends with a communal breakfast. Although ''Wiñoy Tripantu'' has been celebrated in ''

Wallmapu Wallmapu is a name for the traditional territory of the Mapuche people of southern South America. The term was coined in the early 1990s by Indigenist groups but gained traction in the 2000s as the Mapuche conflict in Araucanía intensified. Some ...

'' (now southern Argentina and Chile) for centuries, it has seen a particular revival since the late twentieth century, associated with a broader revival of Mapuche cultural practices and land claims.

References

Mapuche culture Winter events in Argentina Winter events in Chile Winter holidays (Southern Hemisphere) {{argentina-stub