The image of the Madonna at the left was carved by a Maya devotee sometime near the end of the 16th century. It was stationed in a small niche carved out of native limestone in the caves of Lanquín, Guatemala, in the Department (state) of Alta Verapaz. Smoke from votive candles over the generations completely enveloped the bright ruby-red robe with its silver trim.

Such icons abound in the highlands of Guatemala. They are enshrined in countless private devotionals in homes and in public alcoves along the roads. In their sheer numbers, they are perhaps the strongest demonstration of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church among the Maya over the past 500 years. Nevertheless, there is little to distinguish them in practices of faith from the icons of their more traditional counterparts, equally celebrated in style of ritual adoration if no longer in the numbers of faithful as in the past.

What follows is an outline of several traditional religious ceremonies recorded in the last half of the 20th century. Each ceremony is conducted by a traditional Maya priest in the adoration of idols whose traditions stretch back into the pre-recorded past.

Description of Setting

Santiago Atitlán is a small Tzutuhil Indian town on the southern shores of Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan highlands. With a population of about l5,000, the town retains a distinctive character—with its native costumes and pre-colonial costumbres (traditional rites) even though it receives daily visits from tourists who sojourn to the highlands from throughout the world.

One of the most colorful and, at the same time, most mysterious of all the traditions of the Atitecos of Santiago Atitlán is the worship of the idol, Maximón. The origin of the tradition is lost in time; nevertheless, the presence of the idol in their community and the elaborate rites that celebrate it identify Maximón as a powerful motif in the daily life of the community. Its ceremonies are performed during "Semana Santa," or the Christian Holy Week, normally reserved for the celebration of the Passion of Christ. While the rites reflect the patterns of processions and adoration of the figures of the Catholic saints, the Christian world view seems somewhat remote and detached in the Indians' enthusiastic patronage of Maximón (Molina, 1983).

The idol of Maximón is housed in its own casa (house) in a walled compound that appears to be dedicated exclusively to its priesthood. During the day, an auxiliatura (a priest of Maximón) and one or more assitants are present in the compound to assist the devotees of the god. The Indians approach the idol through the auxiliatura or shaman—by appointment. Through the shaman or priest, the Indians may petition Maximón for support or assistance, for special attention or blessing, or healing.

The following ceremony was videotaped at the compound of Maximón without prior arrangement by Dr. Geoffrey Grimes, professor of American studies and English at Mountain View College (Dallas), on July 22, 1989.

1. Opening Greeting to Maximón

The shaman (traditional priest) presents the family—a husband, wife (the patient), and young daughter—to the idol. The family members accompanied by the priest, kneel before the quemador (area for burning ceremonial candles and incense). The priest calls upon the idol to recognize them and reports the payment received for the god's attention and consideration in a ceremony of healing.

2. Preparation of Patient

In the first stage of the ritual, the patient, along side the priest, is seated in a chair before the quemador beyond which, facing the supplicant, is the idol, Maximón. The priest attends both the idol and his client throughout the ritual. The priest identifies for Maximón the problems of the patient. He begins the dedication of ritual elements as he uses them in the ceremony—a necklace and garments (a heavy coat and blankets) selected from a chest. Each element is blessed for sacramental use in this specific ceremony by (l) passing it over incense and candles and (2) presenting it to Maximón. The litany of the priest is practiced and formal with frequently repeated motifs and phrasing. His speech is delivered often in a monotone. The woman is covered completely by the layered garments.

3. The Application and Annointment

The priest opens a space in the garments over the woman's face. Very lightly, he places the point of a wooden wand on her forehead and then moves behind her where, in deliberate strokes, he touches the wand to various points of her head, continuing to address the idol, Maximón. He pours small pools of liquor from a glass before the candles on the flood He takes a mouthful from the same glass, holding the liquor in his mouth as he turns to approach his patient. He spews the liquor in her face, on her lap, and at her feet.

4. Disengagement

The priest begins the process of disrobing the patient, lifting each robe and the necklace from her. He passes each item over the smoke from the candles and incense before returning them to the chest. As he proceeds, the priest calls upon Maximón to assist the patient in her healing. He continues his methodical style of repeated rhytnms and refrains.

5. Accounting

An assistant presents the payment fees—quetzal bills—to the idol and places them in a pocket under the scarves.

6. Supplication

At the end of the service, the priest invites the patient to approach the idol. she does so with deep reverence and an attitude of supplication. She kneels before Maximón, and the priest covers her head with scarves attached to the figure at its neck While the priest placates the patient in soothing tones, the woman whispers her fervent petitions under her breath to the idol.

On cue from the priest, the patient's husband approaches the figure, kneels at its side, and bows his head. The priest lifts two scarves attached to the idol and drapes them over the man's head, pronounces a blessing, and leaves him to complete his private entreaties to the idol.

Background of the Thanksgiving Ceremony

The ceremony as recorded was arranged by the coordinators of the Texas Cultural Alliance 1989 Study/Excursion, "Spiritualities of the Highland Guatemala." Upon arrival with their small group in Chichicastenango on Sunday, July 22, 1989, Elizabeth Espersen, executive director of Thanks-giving Square in Dallas, and Geoffrey Grimes, Professor of English at Mountain View College in Dallas, sought to contact Amoldo, their guide from the previous year who had described various rituals and practices performed by the Maxeño shamans at the site of Turqa above Chichicastenango. They hoped to engage a shaman (a chuchqajau) for the presentation of a ceremony of thanksgiving. Amoldo recommended Sebastian Panjos Tevélan of Chichicastenango who agreed, for payment, to perform such a ceremony only if the ritual was to be a serious, participatory function.

The video documentary introduces Sr. Panjos—a very busy man—at his home, interrupted in an afternoon of appointments as he sits at his household altar, complete with its sacred bundle of ritual objects and divining beans. Two hours later, the group meets Sr. Panjos on the street near his house only two blocks from the Church of Santo Tomas. He is joined by his wife and two granddaughters who ride in the van to the foot of Turqa, the name of both the hill and its local supernatural duefio, or spirit owner of the mountain. The ceremony is performed at the outdoor shrine and altar of Turqa, other wise known as Pascual Abaj.

1. La Entrada (The Opening)

At the shrine of Pascual Abaj (Turqa), Sr. Panjos, the shaman (in Spanish, auxiliatura), entreats the saints and gods (the appropriate day god, the four winds or directions, and El Mundo, (the World god) to attend the service of tharbcsgiving. His wife and granddaughters approach the quemador and kneel beside Sr. Panjos who blesses them, tapping each one on the head with sheathes of incense pellets.

He opens his ceremonial tzute (utility scarf) and lays out the sacramental elements—rose petals, candles, and incense. He directs his wife and granddaughters to prepare the incense at the bed of coals several yards away from the shune with its stone idol and its quemador or altar.

Sr. Panjos places incense in his censer and continues to address the gods in an attitude of humility and deference to the place and purpose. He spfidcles more rose petals before the altar among the flaming candles while his wife and granddaughters wait patiently for the signal to assist with the incense. Upon cue, they move to the bed of coals and break open the sheathes of incense.

2. The Supplication

Sr. Panjos returns over and over again to the idol. He lights new candles and places them in pairs on the soot and wax-coated slabs of rock before Pascual Abaj. While continuing his entreaties in a low monotone and slow, repetitive cadences, he sprinkles more petals and pumps his censor in rhythmic arcs, filling tile air with aromatic copal pom.

3. Salutaion to the Four Cardinal Points

The shaman passes tile smoking censor over four small shrines, each one composed of a small semicircle of heaped rocks and a stone cross. Each shrine represents one of the four cardinal points, the four directions.

4. Dedication of Thanksgiving

The shaman calls upon Elizabeth Espersen, the executive director of Thanksgiving Square (Dallas), to acknowledge the elements of Thanksgiving. He presents the sacramental fowl and sheathes of incense before her. She kisses tile end of the incense bundles and retires, and the shaman returns to the idol.

Sr. Panjos draws a bottle of aguardiente from his bundle. He opens it and sprinkles the liquor in the cap of tile bottle and sets it among the candles burning on the altar.

5. The Sacrifice

The shaman presents the rooster before the idol, gesturing to the four cardinal points—left, then right, front and back. While holding the bird under his arm, he reaches down and picks up the cap of aguardiente. He offers the liquor to the bird, coaxing it to drink by Placing the cap under the beak of the roosted The rooster begins to sip the agnardiente from the cap. After several swallows by the fowl, the shaman sprinkles the remainder of the liquor in the cap over the face of the idol.

Sr. Panjos motions for his wife and children to attend the sacrifice. One granddaughter brings the knife as his wife unties the feet of the rooster and stretches it out. Extending the neck of the bird, the shaman gestures to the idol with the knife and the four cardinal points, then cuts off the head of the fowl. Holding the bird by its feet, he sprinkles blood on the lips of the idol. He does the same at the base of each shrine in front of the quemudor and over the bed of coals, fired with the pellets of smoldering incense.

The shaman returns to the quemador and lays the lifeless bird before the candles. He picks up the bottle of aguardiente, and walking back to the bed of coals, he raises the bottle in the air, then spririles the liquor on the fire. He picks up his censer, swinging it in even rhythms—backwards, forwards, crisscrossing in front.

He returns to the idol, beckoning his wife and granddaughters to attend the bird. one of the little girls approaches and takes the body of the bird by the feet and carries it behind the idol. His wife tears banana leaves from the arch surrounding the shrine and wraps them around the bird. Then she folds the bundled bird into two tzutes (utility cloths).

6. La Clausura (The Closing)

At the quemador, the shaman and his family kneel in reverence, signing the cross before the idol.

On this day of good fortune one gives thanks for all that one has: for one's occupation and trade, for all one's ceremonies and rituals, and for one's houses, land, money, and animals.

On the preceding day in the evening (7 bats), we go to the shrine on our land, with incense, to advise all the holy ones that we shall appear before them on the following day to make our offering.

This same evening, I prepare my things for the morning and leave them over night on the table where I keep my sacred bundle. At six in the morning we eat a good breakfast so that we may be able to speak with force, and then I tell my wife to get ready. She carries the materials for the rite and my sacred bundle. I carry the incense burner and live coals. The materials are:

• For the World: 14 ounces of incense, 50 cakes of copay 9 candles at 1 peso, 4 ounces of sugar, 10 pesos of aguardiente and a basket of roses.

• For Calvario: 2 wax candles at 1 peso for Christ, and 2 little candles at 4 reales in the center of the church.

• For the Church: 10 pesos of candles at 4 reales (20 candles) ker the saints in the altars and for San Juan Bautista, and for the dead, and 10 pesos aguardiente for the dead, wim roses and bread.

• One candle at 1 peso is for each of the three saints in the cofradias, Santo Tomas, San Sebastian, San Jose, and for the saints who are patrons of weaving.

We go first to the World, and kneel. I take off my hat, but we do not put our things down yet.

"Hail World: Perhaps your presence has already been invoked and seated here. I have already trespassed here to invoke your divine spirit, however many may be its manifestations. World, wait for us a moment, to receive this offering. Only the jun kalamla.

Now we get up and put down our things. I sweep the altar and take out my offerings. I set fire to the copal and light the candles. We scatter the roses on the altar and on both sides I pour out the aguardiente and set the glass on the altar.

"Hail, World, my seat, my altar. Come hither for this one day and hour, the master day, 8'e, 9aj. I have al-ready invoked you. Be seated, World Come hither, place of sunrise, where are the watchers and listeners in the sky and the cloudy firmament, and also the alcalde of the clouds and the alcalde of the mountains and plains. Also place of sunset, where are watchers and listeners in the sky and the cloudy firmament, and also the alcalde of the cold tempest and the alcalde of the mountains and plains. And then also the third part of the world, the watchers and listeners in the sky and the cloudy firmament, the alcalde of the mountain and plains. And also the fourth part of the world, come hither, watchers and listeners in the sky and the cloudy firmament, and the alcalde of the cold tempest and of the mountain and plain; come hitherl Also the saints who dwell in the cloudy firmament and who dwell in the earth. Also t'ne President of the World, the President of Heaven, the Ministers Jesus Christ, come hither before this altar! And may they come also, the fourteen, fifteen holy virgins who li ve in our town and who dwell in heaven; and the twelve, thirteen angelic apostles, come hither however many may oe your manifestations: green shoulder, yellow shoulder, however many may be your manifestations, come hither before this World. And also the blessed spirits who are in the holy church, the alcalde judges, the secretaries, the common souls, and also the grandmothers, the grandfathers, however many their manifestations. And also the masters of the staff, the masters of the seeds, the masters of the pito tree; the masters of property and wealth, the masters of corn, the masters of wheat, the masters of dimes and quarters; and also the divine godfathers and godmother those who c.arry and embrace the children; and also the masters of business and trade in the plaza, and also tile masters of travel, those who go about among this village and that. Come hither! And also the masters of donkeys and mules; and also masters of spindles and looms; masters of testimony and surety, masters of spokesmen, masters of altar boys, masters of sacristans, masters of the five guardians of the church; and also masters of the six who hold the staves, and also masters of the eight who wear the surcoat in order to look after our rites and ceremonies.

"World, pardon my trespass, It is I who offer you something to eat. May you all be equal with the divine spirit of the World. And may you an equally grant me favor, to me and to my wedded wife, Sebastiana Ventura. And it) her name I invoke you, however many may be your manifestations, by the grace of God, mistresses of weaving and embroidery, mistresses of the loom, mistresses of the needle; and also perhaps mistresses of property and wealth; mistresses of the needle, and also perhaps mistresses of the pointed stick, defenders and protectors on behalf of those who come to see and hear, perhaps you are godmothers in your incarnations and persons; and also perhaps those who follow the ways of our mother, Santa Ana Porpet, grandmother of infants, those who watch over and care for and deliver infants for the women of our village and valleys. Even so says my wedded wife. Perhaps this is her light and fortune. But may all be seated before this world

"It is I; I am master of the pointed stick. It is I; I write. Perhaps I execute documents for the people of our town and vat leys, and also I look over and listen to their documents. And also I work to gain food and drink; I travel, am master of trade, and also I serve as witness for the people of our town and valleys in their purchases (of land) and in the execution of their deeds; and also I sew garments. And also I stand here before your presence, World, in behalf of this, my resting place, given to me by my father. This is all, World Perhaps I shall travel up and down in looking after and attending to my affairs; this, perhaps is my light and destiny. But here is my fine. Perhaps this is the light and destiny of my wedded wife, hut this here is her fine.

"Good, World on this master day 8 'e, g aj, I give thanks for myself and for my wedded wife for my lot before your presence, World, and also before Our Father, Christ, and also before the miraculous saints, and before the holy spirits, and also before the aIcaldes in Heaven and the alcaldes in the World, the alcalde of the cold tempest. Perhaps in an hour I shall stand before Our Father Christ, and also in the cold house, the icy house before the saints, before the spirits, and also before the three apostles, and before the sairlts, the masters of weaving and sewing. May they all receive thanks before your presence from me and from my wedded wife.

"Yes, World, lords and rulers, lord of the male idols, lord of the female idols, fords of inscriptions and writ-ing, who have inscribed us in the book for the thanks which we offerl May watchers and listeners come to me for my services as master of the sacred bundle, or as scribe, or as godfather and godmother. Furthermore may you give me my food and drink, may you give me dimes and quarters; may you give me property and wealth, and also work as witness for land disputes; and also to execute papers for the village. May I be in their minds when they wish to exe-cute a paper, when they wish to buy land. And also my wedded wife, whatever may be her light and fortune, may it be remembered, and may she be in the hearts and minds of the people of the village, for her good offices in her work and rituals, whatever, by grace of God, they may be.

"World, pardon my trespass. And you, people of our town and valleys from the side where the sun rises; and you from where the sun sets, may you come to me. And also you from the third part of the world, may you also come, and from the fourth part of our town and valleys. I give my spirit to them. I give my spirit to aid them, at dawn or at midday or at sunset or at midnight. At all times I watch over them and listen to them. World, pardon my trespass. Call them before me and also before my wedded wife. For to both of us alike have been given our rites and ceremonies. So to both of us alike send watchers and listeners so that we both may be of service to them.

"World, pardon our trespass. Peacefully accept our fine and portion for you, World." I pour out the aguardiente on the altar and on the copay We take some also. "We shall follow you." We rest a little, and gather together our things. When we are ready to go, we kneel again.

"Yes, World, may peace be with you. This is your offering of food and drink which we leave before you, the token of this great day and hour, but do not be of two hearts and minds towards us in all that which we have asked we shall return again on the appointed day. Pardon our trespass. Only the jun kalama. . ."

Now we go with the same prayer to Calvario, to the Church, to the dead, to San Juan Bautista, and Senor Sacramento. We do toot repeat the whole prayer in each place, but say a different part each tirtle. Then we go to the three apostles in the cofradias (Santa Tomas, Sara Sebastian, San Jose) with the same prayer, and the three saints, patrons of weaving and sewing, to ask for fortune in weaving and embroidery. And again after nine months (260 days) this ceremony is repeated.

from Chichicastenango: A Guatemalan Village, by Ruth Bunzel, 306-309

Now I will talk to you. This is how the world is. This is what we believe along with our forefathers. The sky was already here when God carne. Therefore the sun is our god. And the moon is our real mother. But the stars, they are nothing to us. But the sky, it had been there forever when god came. That is what our ancestors said a long time ago. And the earth belongs to God, but it has always been here. We just call it God's. However, it has always been here, it just belongs to itself. Therefore it is also our mother. All the animals which are on the world, they have no owner. There are animals which have owners (domestic animals ) and there are wild animals. Therefore all the animals have no god. In a sense all these things belong to God, but we must ask (God) for the health of the animals, if they are our own animals.

There are the wood things (the crosses) and the rocks (at the base of crosses). These are our gods, because that is what we were taught by our ancestors. These things are very important because they give us our life, so that we will spend a lot of time on this earth. Therefore, this is where we put our faith. This is where we worship, because this is what our ancestors said. our ancestors said that they knew all about this earth. They knew how this earth began a long time ago. However, this isn't really sure. They just said those tidings; it wasn't sure what they said. However, we must continue to live their way of life, because we are their progeny.

Now about the sky, they said that there are four men-earthquakes. Those four men-earthquakes hold up the sky. Then when they adjust their tumplines it makes an earthquake come. Those men just want to fight, they want to wreck the world, to cause the sky to f.all. Therefore, they adjust their tumplines and an earthquake comes. It is said that there are four of those men (really angels), one at each corner. That is how the sky is.

And the earth, it just holds itself up. It never Shaken local is what our ancestors said a long ti mu ago. There-fore this is what we believe. We must have confidence in it. We must be afraid of the sky, that it might be ruined we must be afraid of the earthquake, that it might come, because the earthquake means that we will die, that this world will collapse. Our ancestors told very many things. Therefore we don't want this world to ever be ruined.

Look at how wonderful this world is. Is it apt to destroy us? For that reason, now when the sun rises, it wants us to worship it. At noon we worship it. At sundown we worship it, because this is our god. We can meditate a little bit, how that this sun is very gleal—it is our god. It shows us very many things. That is what our ancestors told us.

Also there are the ora (day-gods) who are with us. Where are twenty day-gods who see us (take care of us) each day. One day- god sees us each day. Therefore, we feed those day-gods. If we don't feed them, they will become angry with us. Those day-gods have exactly the same power as the sun, which is our god. Therefore, we must appease them. We must put our faith in them. If we do not appease them well, there will be a time when we are walking along, going out to our work, that a snake will come in front of us. But it is a messenger of the day-gods, because we aren't serving them in a way that pleases them. Therefore, we should repent. It is god that the snake shows itself to us, to make us straighten up, so that we don't die. That errand of his is very profitable for us. Therefore we repent; we remember how great our god is in this world.

from Our Ancestors Speak, The Summer Institute of Linguistics.

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