[[Image:Qoyllur R'Iti Shrine by night.jpg|thumb|200px|Shrine of the Lord of Quyllurit'i by night]]
'''Quyllurit'i''' ([[Quechua language|Quechua]] ''quyllu rit'i'',<ref></ref> "bright white snow"<ref>{{cite book|last1=Flores Ochoa|first1=Jorge|title=El Cuzco: resistencia y continuidad|date=1990|publisher=Editorial Andina|language=Spanish|chapter=Taytacha Qoyllurit'i. El Cristo de la Nieve Resplandeciente}}</ref>) is a spiritual and religious festival held annually at the Sinakara Valley in the [[Cusco Region]] of [[Peru]]. The Catholic Church's official position is that the festival is in honor of the Lord of Quyllurit'i ({{lang-qu|Taytacha Quyllurit'i}}, {{lang-es|Señor de Quyllurit'i}}). According to the Church the celebration originated in 1780, when a young native herder called Mariano Mayta befriended a [[mestizo]] boy called Manuel on the mountain [[Qullqipunku]]. Thanks to Manuel, Mariano's herd prospered, so his father sent him to buy clothes for the two boys in [[Cusco]]. Mariano took a sample of Manuel's clothes but could not find anything similar because that kind of cloth was only worn by an archbishop. Upon this discovery, the archbishop of Cusco sent a party to investigate but when they tried to grab Manuel, he became a bush with an image of Christ hanging from it. Thinking they had harmed his friend, Mariano died on the spot and was buried under a rock. An image of Christ painted over this boulder became known as the Lord of Quyllurit'i, which means Lord of Star Snow.
Contrary to the Catholic myth, the festival is known to the local descendants of the indigenous population of the Andes as a celebration of the stars. In particular the Pleiades, which disappears from view in April and reappears in June and signifies a time of transition from old to new and the upcoming harvest and New Year, which for the locals begins on the Winter Solstice. The festival, from the pre-Columbian perspective, has been celebrated for hundreds if not thousands of years.
