Women smoking cigars two at a time, children walking around through
clouds of smoke carrying liters of beer, bandana clad men spitting alcohol on
others and hitting them with bushes… did I somehow find the Guatemalan
equivalent of the Little Falls Dam Festival?
Apparently so!
 |
| Ritual burning area outside of temple |
I spent my Sunday searching for the town of San Andres
Itzapa which is known for its unique
celebrations in honor of a local patron saint, San Simón or Maximón as he is
also known, and boy did I find it. I
took a couple of chicken buses to traverse the 20 or so kilometers up to the
town, and arrived at the strange scene well before noon. The grounds were not necessarily a church,
but rather a building hosting the shrine to Maximón facing an open lot which
was used as space to perform the ritual burnings. There were well over one hundred people at
the grounds (of which I am fairly certain I was the only gringo) and around a
two hour line to get directly in front of the statue. I decided after a half hour wait that my time
would be better spent not waiting to present offerings at the shrine;
especially since I had no idea who San Simón actually was. So I spent my time talking to people about
the rituals and trying to make sense of why men were throwing everything from
alcohol to Cheetos over their fires.
 |
| An incredible selection of candles, liquor, and mini Maximon dolls at a little shop outside. |
My efforts to were largely a failure as no one I talked to could
explain to me the significance of San Simón or the fires outside of the
practice being a ritual. From here I decided
actually taking part was the only way I could figure out what was going on
around me. I went back to the entrance
of the compound, bought some bundles of flowers, and proceeded to ask some of
the women that were practicing a ritual burning there if they could perform one
of the ritual cleansings on me, which they gladly accepted.
 |
| Women who performed the cleansing ritual on me |
The ritual started with a woman lighting a cigar, telling me
to close my eyes, and blowing the smoke all over my body. Now this was a bit different from what I had
in mind for a cleansing ritual. Next, she
sat beside me and proceeded to read my future as shown by the way the cigar was
burning. She would probably be quite disappointed
in me if I shared what she told me on the internet, so I’ll have to leave that
as a cliffhanger. Sorry. Moving on, the last step of the ritual was to
wipe (beat) my body down with flowers after dipping them in some sort of
liquid. This wasn’t the alcohol spitting
method that I saw applied to nearly everyone else, but I think I’m okay with
missing out on that detail.
 |
| Maximón shrine, with neon lights and all. Also, hazy from the smoke. |
All in all, I can safely say that this little Sunday
excursion ended up being one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, and
can leave satisfied having at least accomplished this, even if I did miss out
on the aguardiente liquor
shower.
Highly reliable information on Maximón if anyone is interested:
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario