On Saturday we traveled an hour in the peace corps mini shuttle to Iximche in Tecpan to view and participate in a Mayan ceremony. The Peace Corps hired a Mayan spiritual leader / priestess (I guess that is what you would call her) to lead a ceremony for us. So it wasn't like we were just observing - this ceremony was just for us and we got to participate. The ceremony was centered around a fire that had many layers of offerings in it such as a large block of sugar, lots of candles, cigars, incense, flower petals, etc. The ceremony went on for two hours. It seemed to be a little long for most of us, but afterwards they served us the most amazing lunch. The PC paid for a catered lunch in this park. My plate was piled high sigh rice, beans, potato and spinach salad, grilled chicken, and chorizo (a specialty of this region).
While our ceremony was going on there were other Mayans there participating in their own rituals. so while we were watching our ceremony right behind us the ceremony leader held a live chicken, used a knife to cut off its head and then threw the body into the fire. Needless to say I was not expecting this. Less shocking but just as unexpected I saw one group of people rubbing themselves all over with eggs as if they were doing a really good job washing themselves before they began their ceremony.
You are seeing and experiencing a lot! How do you pronounce Iximche?
ReplyDeleteEE-sheem-che. I's are pronounced like E's in Spanish and X makes a ssssshh sound.
DeleteMeg,
ReplyDeleteFeel free to kill a chicken and throw it in the fire for me. Maybe if you do that and I buy a lottery ticket, we'll be lucky.
Or should we sacrifice a chicken for something a little less selfish? How about good weather in the Great Midwest?