During the Incan era, Machu Picchu was a central place for sun worship. As you can perceive, winter was not then a pleasant season for Incas, this is because the civilization held the sun in such high regard. The annual disappearance of the sun was feared because it would mean the onslaught of famine for them. So, they would take an annual pilgrimage to Cuzco to honor the sun god and plead for his immediate return to prevent famine from happening. This ceremony is known as ‘Inti Raymi’ or ‘The Festival of the Sun’ and was perhaps the most important in the Incan calendar.
Prior to the ceremony, celebrants would avoid doing all forms of physical pleasure and fast for days. A bountiful feast of chichi, corn bread and meat will be showered by the Sapa Inca in exchange for a few slaughtered llamas as gifts for him. This is to ensure fertile lands and plentiful crops for the year ahead reason why slaughtering llamas was so important. Since llamas played in shaping the Inca Empire, the Incas hold them with the highest regard and therefore even today you will see many llamas on the Inca trail trek and Peruvians.
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