Tuesday marked New Year's Day according to the Mayan calendar. The year-5127. Monday I went to a cultural event at a Magisterio (school for teaching teachers) in the city, which celebrated all of the days of Guatemala’s simbolos patrias (patriotic symbols) in one go. Most of the talking was done in K’iche’, the local Mayan language, so I didn’t understand the majority of what was being said, but I was happy that they weren’t accommodating the gringos (which is what people normally do) and were instead crowning the Reina de Idioma Materno (Queen of Maternal Language) in their maternal language. K’iche’ is unfortunately a dying language-tons of people remark that their parents speak K’iche’ but that they never learned. Instead, Spanish has come to dominate, which started when the Spanish explorers first came here to Guatemala. English isn’t so huge here yet, but tons of people love practicing the few words they know with me (especially the bolos). Anyway, it’s good to know that at least in some places K’iche’ is still taught and Mayan traditions are recognized in such a beautiful way. There were dances, dramatic presentations and music. I also love seeing all of the beautiful trajes (traditional dress) from the different areas of Guatemala.
Longer, more in-depth update to come soon.
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