What Inca festival honoring the sun god is still celebrated in Cusco?

The Inca festival honoring the sun god and still celebrated in Cusco is Inti Raymi. Its name means “Sun Festival” in Quechua, and the ceremony honored Inti, the sun deity and patron of the Inca state.

In the Inca period, Inti Raymi was held around the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice, traditionally on June 24. It celebrated the sun’s return and the beginning of a new agricultural cycle. The original festival was centered in Cusco and involved processions, music, dancing, feasting, fasting, and offerings. It was one of the most important ceremonies in the imperial calendar.

Spanish colonial authorities suppressed the ceremony and other Inca religious practices. A modern historical reconstruction began in 1944, drawing on colonial chronicles and Inca traditions. Today’s event is a large public performance held at locations including Qorikancha, Cusco’s Plaza de Armas, and Sacsayhuamán. It is a modern reconstruction rather than an unchanged continuation of the original imperial rite, but it remains one of Cusco’s defining cultural celebrations.