Spinning Around the Maypole

Take Chichicastenango's market and ratchet up the color and excitement several notches. Sound impossible? Just come here between December 13 and 21, and you'll see how possible it is as the city pays homage to St. Thomas, its patron saint, in its annual Santo Tomás celebrations.

Chichi explodes with parades and dances over the entire week. During the festivities the cofrades (city leaders) parade in elegant silver costumes and carry staffs topped by magnificent sun medallions. In the Baile de la Conquista ("Dance of the Conquest," masked dancers reenact the meeting of Old and New Worlds.

The highlight of Santo Tomás is a variation on a maypole dance, called the palo volador ("flyer's pole"). Anyone can dance on the ground, but these participants—four of them dress as birds and represent the four directions—start at the top, wrapped in their own individual strands of rope and unravel a bit with each spin through the air until they arrive, completely unwrapped, safely on the ground. The dance requires elaborate choreography, with dancers making 13 rotations around the pole during their descent. As with everything in Mayan culture, there's method to the math (and in this case, to the madness): 13 x 4 = 52, the number of years in one cycle of the Mayan calendar. On market day you can see only the top of the pole from the steps of the Santo Tomás church. Its base is obscured by vendors' stalls.