Chichicastenango

Chichicastenango

Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, a town in the highlands of Guatemala, is a K’iche’ community of 50,000 people. An additional 100,000 people live in 81 rural villages connected to Chichicastenango. People from the villages frequently come to the town on market days on Thursdays and Sundays. The church of Santo Tomás, next to the market, is often the scene of rituals that are only slightly Catholic and more distinctly Maya. The town’s traditional social and religious structure is organized into 14 Cofradías. Each Cofradía has a patron Catholic Saint, but many of the customs and rituals are of Maya origin. Ajq'ijab' still reside in the town and provide counsel to the community using the wisdom of the Maya Chol Q'ij calendar. In many ways the traditional social, civil, and religious structures of Maya towns are still symbolically reflected in the people’s dress, their spiritual practices, and their communal activities. Market day at Chichicastenango is both a reflection of Maya traditions and of contemporary life.

Market day at Chichicastenango has been an ongoing tradition since ancient times. Vendors sell handicrafts, huipiles, food, flowers, pottery, woodcarvings and traditional masks, condiments, medicinal plants, candles, copal, limestone for preparing tortillas, metates, farm animals, machetes and other tools, including CDs and electronic supplies, along with all things imaginable.
Tepeu Roberto Poz Salanic
Women making tortillas from blue-corn masa at the market.
Isabel Hawkins
Candles and copal, the traditional Maya incense, are used in Calendar ceremonies and inside the church.
Tepeu Roberto Poz Salanic
The stepped platform originally leading to the temple where the church now stands remains venerated by the Maya people today. Some say that each of the 18 steps that lead up to the church stands for one month of the Maya solar calendar.
Istock: Sadura Photography
The statue of San Sebastián, one of several important saints inside the church, is taken on parade by members of one of Chichicastenango's fourteen Cofradías.
Felipe Tapia Chablé
Cofradía leaders, clad in traditional dress, carry incense, candles, and a ceremonial staff topped with a silver badge, a symbol of the Sun and their patron saint. To be a Cofradía member demands great responsibility, effort, and personal expense.
Isabel Hawkins
Wives and other women family members of the Cofradía leaders follow the procession of their patron Saint. Cofradía families serve for a year and, traditionally, during their time of duty, other members of the community will help them with the work in their fields and in their houses.
Isabel Hawkins
In one of the myriad market stalls surrounding the church, young women inspect a wide selection of hand-woven huipiles. The colors and designs, variations on traditional patterns, are evolving styles.
Isabel Hawkins
A modern huipil still preserves many of the traditional symbols. The huipil is not normally sewn under the arms and can be laid out flat. In this way, it shows that the colored sections form a cross with a big Sun in the center. To wear it, a woman passes her head through the center of the Sun. The cross is called "Uk’ux" in K'iche' and it is mentioned in the Popol Vuh. It signifies eternal life and at the same time the four cardinal directions, the four winds, and the four roads.
Isabel Hawkins