MAYAN PRIESTS will be celebrating in Xcunyá and Muna on July 28 and 29 the ritual of the new year “Fuego” (Fire).
Meanwhile, the president of the Association of Mayan Priests in Yucatan, Edgar Peraza Chan, said that for the second time three shamen will participate in a similar activity in Minnesota, USA, in which all together pay tribute and give due importance to the environment and Mother Earth.
“It is in July when our Mayan ancestors thanked the rain for the harvest that was achieved and also thanked Mother Earth,” explained the leader who along with Valerio Canché and Jorge Villanueva, who reside in Minnesota, will take part in the ceremony there.
In addition to promoting care of the environment, they will also bring medicinal plants to teach the way in which herbal medicine is still important in communities far from the city, where traditional doctors or herbalists conserve the knowledge they have inherited in their communities.
An open invitation is extended for the public to attend on July 28 at the botanical garden “Xunaan Cab” of Sister Dona Anselma in Xcunyá, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., where there will be a ceremony dedicated to traditional plants. The next day, in the Cactus Botanical Garden, located in the Mirador de Muna, they will celebrate the Mayan New Year, the Man’ik glyph, and the lighting of the New Fire.
Both free events are intended to preserve ancestral culture, in addition to learning more about medicinal plants. J-menes will heal people and perform “cleansing” rituals.
“The ceremony on Sunday is the New Year fire, where rituals will be made to activate, plants will be discussed, healings will be made, therapeutic cures and also stories and legends will be read in Mayan,” he commented.
The J-men Miguel Ismael Chávez Manrique, originally from the municipality of Chapab de las Flores, stressed that this type of rituals should be preserved because they are the roots of the culture and origin of the Yucatecans, and regretted that there are older adults who do not know them.
He shared that he has a botanical garden in the patio of his house, where he has more than 150 medicinal plants, which he carefully cares for, without applying herbicides so that they can preserve their properties.
.”It is important to learn what our ancestors left us, we need spaces so that we can make people know it,” he said.
Text and photo: Manuel Pool
