Today there are over a million Mapuche living in Chile, many in their ancesteral homelands.
We Tripantu is a celebration of the returning of the sun by the Mapuche (sometimes called the New Years). Traditionally, the Mapuche believe that the new sun is born in winter and continues growing until summer. After that it begins to fade away. We Tripantu celebrates the rebirth of the sun to begin this process anew. We Tripantu is celebrated very differently across Chile, with the most traditional celebration being in the southern lake district where the majority of Mapuche live. For Mapuche communities, We Tripantu is an opportunity to come together and tell traditional stories and play music through the night. Come dawn, everyone goes down to a nearby river or stream to wash away everything negative from the previous year. They then are renewed, like the new sun to face a new year.
The Mapuche were traditionally an agricultural people. Their lives were very connected to the growing seasons and We Tripantu was a way to celebrate this. In other parts of Chile it has come to be an opportunity to celebrate indigenous people in general and to learn more about the cultures that came before us. For most Chileans, the Mapuche's traditional lifestyle and beliefs are far from their own. The majority of Chileans live in Santiago which is a huge modern city full of cars, TVs and everything you are used to in America. We Tripantu is an opportunity to remember a different way of life.
