Guatemala’s Indigenous Mayans Celebrate the Commencement of 5126

Indigenous Mayans of Guatemala participated in religious and cultural ceremonies Monday to mark the beginning of the year 5126 according to the ancient Mayan calendar.

5126 Marks Kej, Year of the Stag or Deer

Culture Minister Emilio Ajquejay said that 5126, according to the Mayan calendar, marks Kej, or the year of the stag or deer.

The four-legged creature symbolizes four cosmic points of strength and power. Ajquejay said that this is likely to be a year in which “world powers will be strengthened.”

Director of Indigenous Affairs Maria Quezada said that the stag reflects the life’s four energies: physical, mental, spiritual and emotional, as well as mankind’s dominion over other beings on earth.

Wayeb

In the Mayan faith, the new year is ushered in after the end of Wayeb, a five-day period of reflection, meditation, planning and goal-setting. To celebrate the event, ethnic Mayan leaders held vigil services across Guatemala overnight Sunday into Monday.

Roberto Cajas, director of a confederation of indigenous groups, said the new year celebration offers Guatemalans the chance to express their “profound gratitude to Nature” for having provided humans all the essentials needed for life.

Besides holding ceremonies to offer thanks to Earth, “the new year affords each person the opportunity to asked the Mayan gods to bolster their areas of weaknesses,” Cajas said.

Guatemala, in Central America, is one of Latin America’s few majority-indigenous countries.

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