San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.- With the objective of generating and strengthening bonds of coexistence between society and promoting cultural diversity, the presentation of the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Carnival of Tenejapa Tajimal K’in took place this Sunday morning and Kin Tajimoltik, in the Cultural Center of the North zone and in the Plaza de la Paz, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
The organizers indicated that the Carnival is a popular traditional festival of the native peoples, where adults, youth and children participate, with multicolored costumes to represent individual, collective and social reality.
They highlighted that according to the Mayan calendar it is divided into 18 months of 20 days, plus the 5 days called Ch’ay K’in “lost days” it is customary to say goodbye with a celebration of rites, dances, music, songs, costumes, joy, jokes and sacred drinks, which symbolize the end and the beginning of an agricultural cycle and the beginning of a new natural cycle of life.
The director of the Cultural Center of the North zone, Marcos Girón Hernández, reported that these days are used to pray, thank, ask for health and well-being, thanking life, peace and harmony with Mother Nature.
The characters that are icons of this party dress and transform when they hear the sound of the trumpet and the string instruments that arise from the heart, this conveys the unique and magical sensation for the dance of the “maruchas”.
Girón Hernández said that some native peoples celebrate the Carnival from 4 to 5 days that lasts the “Ch’ay K’in or lost days” and others celebrate it for 13 days according to mathematics, science and the worldview of the native peoples.
Beyond the colors, music and tradition, carnivals are an ancient cultural and artistic expression that is lived in the original towns of Chiapas,” concluded Girón Hernández.
Source: Diario de Chiapas
