The story
Fiesta del Yamor in Otavalo
An early-September festival in Otavalo centered on Yamor, a thick fermented beverage brewed from seven varieties of corn, blending the indigenous Koya Raymi lunar and solar fertility ritual with the Catholic feast of the Virgen de Monserrate since around 1952, in one of Ecuador's most prominent indigenous market towns.
Yamor takes its name from two Kichwa words, yak, meaning wisdom, and mur, meaning grain, describing a thick fermented beverage brewed from seven varieties of corn, white corn, chulpi, morocho, black corn, yellow corn and dried crushed canguil, that gives Otavalo's early-September festival both its name and its central ceremonial object.