La Paz is home to the largest regional fair of Alasitas, which begins its month-long celebration on 24 January. The ritual honors the city's god of fertility Ekeko. During the rituals, participants procure miniatures of Ekeko. The activities include searching for and acquiring the figurines, they are consecrated or blessed by the different Andean ritualists or the Catholic Church. Other cultural events include alasitas throughout Bolivia: The Fiesta of the Virgin of Copacabana and the Fiesta of the Virgin of Urkupina.
In the pre-Columbian era, the indigenous Aymara people observed a ceremony called Chhalasita when they prayed for good crops and exchanged basic goods. As time evolved, it included elements of Catholicism and Western acquisitiveness to accommodate.
The word "Chhalasita" comes from an Aymara word meaning "buy me". It is believed that the Tiwanaku culture used to worship its deities for good luck on 22 December by offering miniatures of what they hoped to achieve or accomplish. Sebastián Segurola reinstituted the celebration during the siege of La Paz in 1781, changing it from October to 24 January as a gift to Our Lady of Peace, the holy figure and La Paz namesake.
In this traditional practice, the miniatures have acquired a new meaning, as they carry the bearer's faith, granting wishes. People also exchange miniatures as a way to symbolize paying debts. People from all sectors of society, irrespective of their socioeconomic status, participate in the practice, which promotes social cohesion and intergenerational transmission.
Donations and payment of debts are symbolic of how important these rituals are to lowering tensions between individuals and even between social classes. In modern life, the belief is that a miniature version is thought to attract the recipient to the real object in the following year. For example; food and household items can be bought, as well as computers, construction materials, cell phones, houses, cars, diplomas, and even a figure of a domestic worker (whom the recipient may later hope to employ).
Since Alasitas are primarily transmitted through families, children usually accompany their parents on their journeys. Many efforts have been made to safeguard Alasitas through primarily civil society. Hopefully, the government's efforts to hold the exhibition of Alasita miniatures in museums and conservatories have created awareness of some of the themes. Also, the organization of contests within the city may encourage the production and development of creativity, fostering an ever-increasing number of participants.