Grateful for Mother Earth

Danilo Ramírez DCA Mundo

The municipality of San Martin Sacatepéquez, in the department of Quetzaltenango, is home to the Chicabal volcano. It is the scenario prayer ceremony for rain and gratitude for Mother Earth. Here, locals and tourists pray to the Creator for abundant crop water.

This event takes place 40 days after Easter Sunday in the volcano’s crater, right where there is a crystalline lagoon sacred to the locals.

A tradition

This tradition, inherited by the people from their grandparents and great-grandparents, consists of placing offerings inside the water mantle, praying, and lighting bonfires, asking for health, life, nature, and good crops.

Chikab’al means “good or sweet place.” In the Mam cosmovision, the water of Chicabal is sacred because the clouds come down to bring the essential liquid of life and then return to the sky in the form of the rain that feeds the corn crops. Guatemala is waiting for you!