La Chaya, an indigenous version of Carnaval, takes place in February or March and can get raucously wet with water balloons—the Diaguita-derived deity known as Pujllay appears, according to popular belief, as a rain cloud in the Andes before dying on the celebration’s final Sunday.
December 31’s midday El Tinkunako also has indigenous origins in San Francisco Solano’s 1593 mediation between the Spanish invaders and the Diaguitas, who insisted on replacing the Spanish alcalde (mayor) with the Niño Alcalde, a Christ Child image that still resides in the Franciscan church. In a procession that ends in front of Plaza 25 de Mayo’s government house, the indigenous patron saint San Nicolás de Bari bows three times to acknowledge the image’s authority.