The Fiesta of the Virgen de la Candelaria of Peru
The Fiesta of the Virgen de la Candelaria is one of the most important religious and cultural celebrations in the Andes. Centered in the city of Puno, near the sacred waters of Lake Titicaca, the festival blends Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary with deep-rooted Aymara and Quechua cosmologies. Its foundations stretch back to colonial evangelization, when Indigenous communities reinterpreted