Throngs of Bolivians have taken to the streets of Sucre, Bolivia's capital, throwing flowers and dancing in a pagan joy to ring in the return of Ekeko, their 2,000-year-old pre-Columbian god of abundance and prosperity.

Bolivians recently received the 6-inch icon from the Museum of History in Bern, Switzerland. 

The wandering old man image was created by the Pucara culture, which lived near Lake Titicaca between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D.  

According to The Associated Press, Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi took the icon from several locals in 1858 in return for "a glass of cognac."

Saturday's jubilee comes during the feast of Alasita, which means "buy me" in the Aymara language. Each year it is held in honor of Ekeko.

Ekeko is always depicted as a man with a mustache wearing traditional Andean clothes, usually a poncho. He is loaded with bags and baskets full of grain and food, household objects, currency and basically anything a person might want or need to have a comfortable or prosperous time on earth.

Ekeko is commonly found as a little statue put in the lucky spot of a house and is supposed to bring monetary wealth to its handlers.

In 2009, Bolivia asked the United Nations to recognize the Bolivian cultural roots of the Alasitas festival celebrating the figure of the Ekeko.

According to The Prisma U.K., Ekeko first made himself known to the world with indigenous features and without any clothes.

The Catholic Church later tried unsuccessfully to stamp out "the cult of Ekeko." But after the conquest, he survived, only now wearing clothes and being of a mixed race.

Today the old good guy is known in and outside of Latin America and brings luck everywhere he goes.