Chichicastenango
Chichicastenango – nicknamed Chichi by locals and visitors alike – is located in Guatemala’s Western Highlands. Surrounded by mountains and pine-swathed hills, Chichi sits at an altitude of 1,965 meters and has a population of around 42,500. But every Thursday and Sunday, thousands more flood into the town from all over the world.
Chichi has been a main trading centre since before the conquistadors arrived in the Americas. For hundreds of years vendors and buyers throughout the Quiche region met to trade at Chichi, and now groups from much further afield come here too. The K’iche’ Maya of the neighbouring region use Chichi as their main market, and many of Guatemala’s other ethnic groups such as Kaqchikel, Mam, Ixil and several others are also regulars on market day.
With a deserved reputation as the most colourful native market in the Americas, Chichi comes alive twice a week. Portable stalls are set up in the central plaza and the surrounding blocks, usually continuing into the early hours, in preparation of bus loads of tourists and locals pouring into the streets to explore this vibrant symphony of colours and costumes, smoke and smells.
Away from the town center of Chichicastenango, Guatemala, on a hill that is rarely touched by tourists, one of the most colorful cemeteries in the world is hidden in plain sight. Steeped in Mayan tradition, the vibrant rainbow of pigments celebrates the afterlife, and can symbolize different family roles, like a color-coded clue to the puzzle of the dead.
Featuring rows upon rows of painted crosses and tall mausoleums, the Chichicastenango Cemetery is a perfect example of Guatemala’s brighter outlook on burials. In a town where the majority of the population is indigenous Mayan K’iche, the cemetery is also the home to a variety of rituals on Day of the Dead, including incense, alcohol, and the occasional chicken as offerings to the deceased.
Many tombs are colored based on the person’s family status. Tombs may be painted white to represent purity; graves of mothers are painted turquoise for protection; grandfathers are marked in yellow to indicate that the golden sun will protect humanity. Other graves break this more traditional mold, painted in lime green or red or the favorite color of the deceased.
Read MoreChichi has been a main trading centre since before the conquistadors arrived in the Americas. For hundreds of years vendors and buyers throughout the Quiche region met to trade at Chichi, and now groups from much further afield come here too. The K’iche’ Maya of the neighbouring region use Chichi as their main market, and many of Guatemala’s other ethnic groups such as Kaqchikel, Mam, Ixil and several others are also regulars on market day.
With a deserved reputation as the most colourful native market in the Americas, Chichi comes alive twice a week. Portable stalls are set up in the central plaza and the surrounding blocks, usually continuing into the early hours, in preparation of bus loads of tourists and locals pouring into the streets to explore this vibrant symphony of colours and costumes, smoke and smells.
Away from the town center of Chichicastenango, Guatemala, on a hill that is rarely touched by tourists, one of the most colorful cemeteries in the world is hidden in plain sight. Steeped in Mayan tradition, the vibrant rainbow of pigments celebrates the afterlife, and can symbolize different family roles, like a color-coded clue to the puzzle of the dead.
Featuring rows upon rows of painted crosses and tall mausoleums, the Chichicastenango Cemetery is a perfect example of Guatemala’s brighter outlook on burials. In a town where the majority of the population is indigenous Mayan K’iche, the cemetery is also the home to a variety of rituals on Day of the Dead, including incense, alcohol, and the occasional chicken as offerings to the deceased.
Many tombs are colored based on the person’s family status. Tombs may be painted white to represent purity; graves of mothers are painted turquoise for protection; grandfathers are marked in yellow to indicate that the golden sun will protect humanity. Other graves break this more traditional mold, painted in lime green or red or the favorite color of the deceased.
