Maximom - a Mayan God

During our weekends at Lake Atítlan, we visted other villages along the lake, including Panajachel, San Marcos, Jaibalito, Tzununa, San Pedro, San Juan, and Santiago.

The trip to Santiago included a trip to visit the shrine dedicated to Maximon, their alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, and curse issuing Mayan god. It is quite common in this area to pray to Mayan gods, the Christian god, and Christian saints as many people practice the newer introduced Christian religion, while still practicing their Mayan religion. With their Mayan gods, it is quite common to have a shrine or statue represent a specific Mayan god and each year, the shrine is stored at a new person's house where others can come to pay homage to the god and bring sacraments and donations to the god. Maximon is one of the these Mayan gods from the underworld and while we were there, there was a man praying vocally to Maximon about some women that did him wrong and his desire for Maximon to bring them bad luck, his desire for new material things, and a general desire for a better life.