Indigenous Mexicans Celebrate Festival Honoring City's Patron Saint in Chiapas

1 年前

Hundreds of indigenous Mexican Tzotzil (Mayan) people celebrated the Festival de San Lorenzo, honoring the patron saint of the city of Zinacantan, on August 9, the same date as World Indigenous Peoples’ Day, according to news reports.

Local news reports said this vibrant festival in Mexico’s southeastern state of Chiapas involves dancing, flute music, flowers, traditional drinks, candles, rockets, and a horse race. The festival has been observed for decades and attracts tourists from other regions of Mexico as well as other countries, according to reports.

“This meeting is an ancestral custom among the peoples. We carry it out every year to celebrate the eve of the San Lorenzo festival, to ask for peace and that everything be joy. I feel very proud to belong to and lead my people of Zinacantan,” the city’s municipal president, Mariano Sanchez Hernandez, told local news.

This footage uploaded to Instagram by user Carolina Albertini shows crowds playing instruments while parading down the streets and people praying inside the Temple of San Lorenzo in Zinacantan.

Local news said the Temple of San Lorenzo was fully restored in 2021 after it suffered structural damage due to an earthquake in 2017. The majority of Zinacantan’s population are Tzotzil Maya, according to the Smithsonian. Credit: Carolina Albertini via Storyful