It was crazy awesme. We are in our last days of Guatemala, and today Marissa's teacher took us to this church in Totonicapan about 30 minutes away. We traveled (of course) via chicken bus. So, not only is it crazy that this church looks the way that it does, but this church also has some pretty interesting Mayan traditions and history behind it.*
1.) Apparently, during the civil war a lot of people in this town we dying or being summoned to serve in the army. Somehow, a sage of some kind reccomended that they paint the church like this to ward off all the bad luck. But not just anyone could paint the church...it had to be painted by virgins!!
2.) The church is used for marriages. Normal enough, right. Well, these marriages are arranged and occur when teens are around 14 or 15 years old. The young boys, soon to be husbands, spend 6 months preparing with a town elder grandpa figure who teaches them the ropes of being a good husband. They also are literally learning about ropes beacuse the boys must climb a rope the extends from a tall pole (like a telephone pole) to the top of the church! In a monkey suit! The monkey suit is used for channeling climbing powers of the monkey. The boys must climb this rope to signify the ability to overcome all of the hardships of marriage. Once the boys accomplish this, they have proven to the family of the girl, and the entire town that they are worthy of the union.
Pretty cool in my opinion.
*Please excuse any misinformation in my report of these stories, as I was listening to them in Spanish.
What a beautiful church and cool story. Not so different from America where young men dawn "monkey suits" and attempt to climb to ridiculous heights all to try to impress women.
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