There are three religions practiced throughout Guatemala today: Catholic, Evangelical, and the old Mayan beliefs known as the cofradía system. When I originally made the reservations to participate in Semana Santa, or Holy Week, I chose to be in Antigua for the ceremonies because of its reputation as one of the best Semana Santa celebrations in the world. I expected to see the differences in how the religions observed the holiday in Antigua. Shortly before attending the event, I learned that the old cofradía system is not very significant in Antigua any longer; hence their celebrations at times such as Semana Santa are purely Catholic in nature.

The cofradía system is present in the highlands of Guatemala, though many feel it’s dying a slow death there, as well, as many children grow up and turn to more conventional religious practices. They want to join the modern world and be freed of what they see as a very superstitious and cumbersome religion. Most of the Catholic Semana Santa rituals are also practiced in Santiago Atitlan, along the shores of Lake Atitlan in the highlands. They even started making street carpets a few years ago, but Santiago continues with some additional practices that are purely Mayan, and I’ll try to explain them here. I must be honest and say that I have never observed these practices, though I have read extensively about them and spend time in Santiago among the Tzutujil tribe of Mayan descendants living there whenever possible. I’ll start with some details about the Maya that are necessary to put some of this in perspective.

There are only two seasons in Santiago Atitlan: the wet season and the dry season. The temperature is relatively constant otherwise. The rains are viewed as essential because all life is dependent on them. Atitecos, as the residents of Santiago call themselves, consider the wet season to be male because the rains pour down and inseminate the earth so life will grow, so they believe the earth is changing from female to male as the rains begin. The Popal Vuh, or ancient Mayan bible, says that humans were made from maize, or corn, and much of the Mayan diet is dependent on several corn crops annually.

The Maya have always held ceremonies around the spring equinox to please the Gods so they will shower them with rains. The Tzutujil believe that we humans are entitled to a basic sustenance of life, but if one wants more than that, something must be sacrificed to obtain any extras. This is their core belief of sacrifice and abundance. They also feel that it’s their responsibility to be aware of any signs or dreams that are given to them to help guide them to all that is abundant in their world.

The Mayan calendar is a 360-day calender made up of eighteen twenty-day months. The remaining five days to complete the solar year are known as the Wayeb’ (way-ebb) in Tzutujil, or the five dead or dangerous days. These five days are considered evil and unlucky, and it’s a time that the Tzutujil try to maintain a low profile so they don’t attract the attention of the Gods. When the Spanish came along early in the 16th century, they forced Catholicism on the Maya. The Maya quickly adapted their old religion to fit this Catholic structure, and Easter was the perfect time to carry on this ancient ritual. Palm Sunday became the 360th day of the year, so Monday of Holy Week now begins the five dead or dangerous days, ending on Good Friday.

The Maya have a pre-Spanish man-god themselves in Quetzalcoatl. He lived at the beginning of creation, several thousand years before the Spanish arrival as the Maya see it, and was sacrificed himself in an effort to end human sacrifice on earth. He swore he would return, and many see Jesús as his return to finish what he started.

A number of spiritual beliefs from around the world have a set of hero twins in their story, and Central America is no exception. In Santiago, one such set is Jesús Cristo and the Mayan God Mam (in the form of Maximón.) Maximón is a three-and-a-half foot wooden statue representing a drinking and smoking deity who gained notoriety throughout Guatemala in the middle of the nineteenth century. For more information on Maximón, visit Lake Atitlán elsewhere on this Web site. At the heart of Semana Santa in the highlands is the belief that each of these twins complements the missing part of the other, and both must live and be sacrificed to bring the other back to life.

With that bit of background, I’ll move on to the additional activities practiced in Santiago. Semana Santa in Santiago begins with sort of a coming-of-age ceremony for the young men. They start preparations early in Lent by traveling to the Pacific coast on foot, about a sixty-mile journey, with several older cofradía members, where they collect fruit and flowers to please the Gods so they will bless the people with rain. The young men return with fruit on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, and it is delivered to a specific cofradía where ceremonies occur to help the fruit ripen. Unfortunately, this coming-of-age ceremony hasn’t happened for several years now as the young men are no longer interested in participating in it. Instead, the fruit has simply been picked up by truck and delivered to the cofradia.

On the Monday evening before Easter, a ceremony is held beside Lake Atitlan when the men of the cofradia devoutly wash Maximón’s clothing in the lake. This is the only time you will see men doing any laundry in Santiago all year. They believe his clothing holds all the sins confessed to him over the past year, not to mention an extreme amount of dust and soot, all of which must be washed away in this annual ceremony.

On Tuesday of Semana Santa, the clothes are ceremoniously dried in the sun before Maximón is dressed in a change of clothing in the afternoon. The old clothes he had worn for the past year are locked in a trunk to be used in healing ceremonies. People from all over Guatemala offer his annual clothing and adornments as gifts. That night a celebration with folk music is held at Cofradia Santa Cruz.

The ceremonial fruit is unpacked and presented to all in town as a marimba band plays on Wednesday morning. Maximón makes a brief visit before going to a special chapel in front of the church. Wednesday night is the first time since the beginning of Lent that the young Atitecos are permitted to make love to their wives. The heat of the sexual energy helps to ripen the fruit. Fruit that is not ripe or is already past ripe is a bad sign for the coming year.

Atitecos visit Maximón all day Thursday in his chapel, making penance and praying for favors. As is true in Antigua, an all-night vigil begins at midnight Thursday with a procession of Jesús, Maria Dolores, and San Juan. The procession is followed by men running back and forth across the market carrying saints and messages all night. I understand the role of the Roman centurions used to be filled by the Guatemalan army, who would arrive at two o’clock in the morning in their army fatigues with automatic weapons to take Jesús to judgment. The scene was made even more chilling by the tremendous mistrust and animosity between the army and the Atitecos. As explained in Massacre elsewhere on this Web site, the army is no longer permitted in Santiago, so now Atitecos play the Roman centurions themselves.

At noon on Good Friday, Maximón must be sacrificed himself by hanging to clear the way for the crucifixion--or sacrifice, as the Maya see it--of Jesús. The crucifixion of Jesús ends at 3:00 as the body is brought down from the cross, and a huge procession is held. He becomes Salvador del Mundo then, Savior of the World. He is taken inside the church and buried in a glass casket behind the altar. At 5:00 Maximón arises and appears on the church steps. Mam is alive and well after traversing the five dead or dangerous days, and Jesús was sacrificed to allow this to happen.

On Easter itself, Maximón leaves the church for Cofradia Santa Cruz where he will live for the coming year. That’s it--Easter is over then without Jesús Christo ever arising himself. The Tzutujil believe Jesús has become a different deity at death who splits into three--one becomes a rain god, one is of the earth in the form of maize, and a third crosses the sky with his father, the sun. It’s the Central American trinity of rain, maize, and sun.

I believe this lack of a resurrection, the central ideology of Christianity, is one reason some Christians question whether the cofradia system is even Christian in nature. The existence of Maximón is another reason, as he is seen by some as a false deity. Some Christian Evangelicals set up their speakers at Maximón’s events and attempt to disrupt them. Missionaries arrive in Santiago before Semana Santa to convert the Tzutujil, whom they see as heathens, and to save them from eternal damnation.

While it’s apparent that the Christian visitors to the Tzutujil ceremonies of Semana Santa mean well, their intolerance of the different practices of which they have little understanding is also clear. The Tzutujil appear to be deeply religious people and to believe in God and Jesus. Unfortunately, the Evangelicals seem to sincerely believe that if the Mayan beliefs aren’t practiced exactly as the Christians’ are, they must be wrong and in need of change.

But I have to admit to learning a related lesson myself a few years ago. I was ranting and raving about people’s intolerance of something when I suddenly had an epiphany--my intolerance of intolerant people is exactly the same issue! No better or worse. I have attempted to practice an acceptance of where people are with their beliefs about a particular issue ever since this revelation. The results have been less than stellar a number of times, but I’m working on it. Dare I say it’s even possible that my beliefs about some issue could be wrong?

Nah.

[ Home ] [ My Story ] [ Tikal ] [ Lake Atitlan ] [ Antigua ] [ Cofradia Semana Santa ] [ Italy ] [ Links ] [ Guest Book ]

This page last updated on 07/16/01