Visitors 7
Modified 16-Jan-22
Created 29-Aug-19
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7/24-25/2019 Festival of Santa Ana
I was lucky and privileged to witness some of the annual Festival of Santa Ana in La Tonya, Zona Reina, Uspantån, Quiche Department, Guatemala. Taking photos from the back of the ceremony, I was invited into the church and into the kitchen area to witness the ceremonies. I do hope that posting these images does not cause any unease or damage. Please let me know and I will take them down.
The festival began around 9 pm on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, and continued nonstop until the following day and beyond. I heard it was to last for three days. Three thousand people in attendance. The Bishop was scheduled to attend on July 25. People came from all around, many villages in the valley. They slaughtered at least three bulls, 70 chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. to feed the crowd; large pots of soup/stew were continually boiling, food was offered freely. (The food was good, even if the meat was a little tough. People took meat home with them if they did not finish it.)
The ceremonies took place inside the Catholic church; in the kitchen across the field; and around and in front of the church. The church seems to be large enough to accommodate people from the wider region, well beyond this one town. I only know what I saw. I do not speak Qʼeqchiʼ or even Spanish. There seemed to be strong Mayan and indigenous influences on the ceremonies.
Here are some of my photos. (I also have several videos, with the sound of the music from the two bands in the church, and the flute, drums, and conch shells carried by the procession.) I was there for the opening of the ceremonies on 7/24, then again on 7/25. I left before the Bishop arrived.
Mayan priests/officials, women and men, attended the ceremony from many villages. They did not all know each other: they wore nametags. A line of women, and a line of men, danced slowly through much of the ceremony, carrying candles, swinging censers of incense. Music came from two bands, playing alternately from each side of the church, amplified by speakers; a flute, drums, and conch shells played during some processions. Food was prepared in a large building across the field from the church, and distributed to all comers. Of course, people dressed in their finest clothing for the festival.
Santa Ana, the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus, is the patron saint of the area. Her Catholic feast day is July 26 – the third day of this three-day festival.
Wikipedia (8/30/2019) has interesting information about Qʼeqchiʼ, the predominant Mayan language here, and the early history of Guatemala:
“At the time of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Qʼeqchiʼ was probably spoken by fewer people than neighboring languages such as Itzaʼ, Mopan, and Choltiʼ, all of which are now moribund or extinct. The main evidence for this fact is not colonial documents, but the prevalence of loan words apparently stemming from these languages in Qʼeqchiʼ. However, a number of factors made Qʼeqchiʼ do better than the just-mentioned languages. One is the difficult mountainous terrain which is its home. Another is that, rather than simply being conquered, as the Choltiʼ, or resisting conquest for an extended period, as the Itzaʼ did for over 200 years, the Qʼeqchiʼ came to a particular arrangement with the Spaniards, by which Dominican priests, led initially by Fray Bartolome de las Casas, were allowed to enter their territory and proselytize undisturbed, whereas no lay Spaniards were admitted. This led to their territory being renamed "Verapaz" (true peace) by the Spaniards, a name which continues today in the Guatemalan departments Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. This relatively favorable early development allowed the people to spread, and even make war on neighboring Mayan groups. Although it was later followed by the brutal policies of the late-19th-century liberals and the late-20th century military governments, it largely explains the status of Qʼeqchiʼ as the 3rd largest Mayan language in Guatemala and the 4th across the Mayan region. The relatively recent, postcolonial expansion is also the reason that Qʼeqchiʼ is perhaps the most homogeneous of the larger Mayan languages.”
This coexistence of the Roman Catholic Church with the indigenous culture apparently continues to this date.
Another Mayan language is spoken hereabouts, by some refugees from the genocide of the 1960s through 1990s: Ixil (?).