Offering to the Pachamama

Offers to the Pachamama are mainly performed during the month of August, especially on the 1th of August. The Andean populations honored the Pachamama during the entire month because August is the coldest winter month in the southern hemisphere and a time where the Andean people, crops and livestock are most vulnerable. August as well marked the beginning of the New (agricultural) Year in the Andes. Nevertheless, offers can be done throughout the whole year, depending on the intention. The ceremonies, commonly known by the Andean population as Earth payments, are rituals from ancestral origin that are part of a reciprocity system between the material and the spiritual world. It is a ritual which finality is giving back to Mother Earth what she has provided. You can also ask for your deepest desires, what you want to achieve in life and what you want for your loved ones. Giving ceremonial offers to the Pachamama is a symbolic way for which Andean populations give back to Pachamama what has been taken from her. Farmers that do a payment to the Pachamama usually ask permission for tilling the soil and work it. The offer given is a symbolic way of thanking the good harvest. The offer is an act of cosmic reciprocity where universal justice is made. Breaking this tradition would cause serious distortions of the balance of natural, social and religious systems. For the Andean population, the offers have a sense of reconciliation with the spiritual forces with the finality of avoiding misfortunes, likewise, they represent rites of passage.