Jets´ Meek´ - The Mayan Baptism Ceremony

Today we watched several students perform the Mayan Jets´ Meek´ (hets mek)ritual. It was part of their final presentation for the cuatri. The girls dressed in their traditional huipiles and the boys wore their traditional cotton guayabera-style shirts and light colored pants. They even brought a real baby! Only this baby wasn´t officially being baptized. She was 2 years old. The real baptism happens at 3 months for girls, and at 4 months for boys.
There is significance to every aspect of the ceremony, and everything is related to the gender roles in Mayan culture. The ceremony itself is short, taking only about 10 to 15 minutes total. It consists of the baby being carried around a table a specific number of times by the godparents. The number of turns they take around the table depends on if it´s a boy or a girl. With each turn, or vuelta, the godparent picks up an item from the selection that has been placed on the table. There are foods, as well as items such as a pen and notebook (so the child will be a good student) and gender-role related things as well. As the child is carried on the hip of their godparent (so their legs will develop and be strong as they grow up), all the attendees of the baptism eat pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and throw the shells behind the person and the child as they walk. This is done to help the child keep moving forward in life, or something along those lines.
While this wasn´t a real ceremony, it was really neat to see the students performing it because many had written about it in their Language Journals a couple weeks ago. It was difficult for me to imagine it at the time, so seeing it done really brought the tradition to life for me.
Lately, there have been lots of opportunities lately for becoming acquainted with Mexican and Mayan cultures. On Saturday, I went to Chemax (Chey-MASH)to meet with one of my students´ families with the intention of buying a huipil, which is the traditional dress of Maya women. It is usually a white dress, about knee-length, with brightly-colored embroidery along the collar and the bottom. Underneath, the women wear something called a justan, which is a skirt-slip with either a lace or crocheted border. Both Betsy and I are having huipiles made by my student´s wife. She will hand-embroider them and it will take her about 2 weeks. I am really excited about the final product because I was able to select the design myself, as well as the colors she will use. It is going to be something very special to me, for sure.
When we arrived to Chemax by bus (about 30 minutes from Valladolid), my student picked us up on his triciclo, which is a very cool contraption. It has a bike seat and a rear tire, but the front is a metal frame with a platform where people can sit or you can put firewood or various things. I held their young son as he rode us to their house, where we met the family (wife, mother-in-law, and father-in-law) After we looked at the huipiles and talked and saw family photos, they invited us to stay for lunch. It was a wonderful afternoon.
Then yesterday, I was in Cancun and I spent the afternoon in the tianguis (tee-ANG-eez), which is a bustling open-air market. They sell everything there from clothing to foods (grilled shrimp, pozol, tortas, aguas frescas, etc.) to live animals and cookware. It is basically a big flea market. Then, after spending the day in the sun, I went to the beach for a swim (even though by that time it was raining!). While I was there I got my fair share of lots of live music, primarily African drumming and salsa. I was also able to go to Wal-Mart again and pick up a few things.
In all it was a great weekend, but I´m pretty tired and looking forward to getting off work in a couple hours! I´m hopeful that this week is going to be a bit less hectic because all our testing is done and our Gastronomy students have gone off to do their 6 week-long Prácticas , or internships. Of course, there´s always lots to do, but it will be nice to have fewer classes to give.
More soon!