Santiago de Atitlan and Maximon
November 17, 2010 in Guatemala, North America, Podcast, Travelogue
We travel to Santiago de Atitlan and visit the idol “Maximon”.
[podcast format=”video”]http://www.edventureproject.com/Podcast/SantiagoMaximon.m4v[/podcast]
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Thanks for sharing!! It is amazing to watch! What was the “vibe” while you were there? Did you get the sense this is a current, active form of worship or was this a quasi-reenactment for tourists the way that so many “authentic” travel experiences are? I think you are in a pretty remote area so I’m assuming the former, but there seem to be other Caucasians in the audience and the couple seems to be dressed in modern clothes. Does it move from house to house so that admission fees can be spread around or is it a point of honor to house him?
Any idea what the purpose of the ceremony was for the young couple? I didn’t catch that.
What were your kids’ reactions to all of it?
Hi Jen,
Great questions. This is definitely a very current, active form of worship for these people. It was not “put on” in the least. For the Bruho, no one else was in the room but the couple and Maximon. The idol moves houses once per year, during Semana Santa. It’s a huge honor to house him for a year. It’s easy enough to visit, and there were a couple of other people there… but compared to the number of tourists in town, virtually no one attends. The young couple was in modern clothes. There’s an interesting blend of very traditional dress and very modern clothing throughout Guatemala. In many ways it’s a country stuck between centuries. We don’t know what the ceremony was for, as we don’t speak the Mayan dialect. The book I’m reading suggests that a lot of the ceremonies for couples were marriage or fertility related (at least back in the day) It’s hard to say, really.
The kids were pretty amazed. We’ve never seen anything like that before. There were lots of conversations in the days following. Thankfully, they’ve been around the block enough to know better than to ask the obvious (and often disrespectful) questions in the presence of our hosts! It was definitely worth the boat trip!