In Peto, a Push to Save Maya Farming Rituals

Farmers in Peto and its outlying communities are calling for the preservation of Maya ceremonies tied to the agricultural cycle, warning that younger generations have largely stopped practicing them.

Eduardo Moo, a longtime farmer, said that roughly 50 years ago, farmers in the outlying communities, known locally as comisarías, organized and supported one another to hold rogativas, primicias and ofrendas — rounds of prayer, first-harvest offerings and other rituals, especially during droughts or when the rains were late.

The rogativas were meant to call the rains and secure a good harvest, Moo said. After the harvest came the primicia, a ceremony of thanks to the Creator for the crops the land had given.

Honoring the forest’s ‘owners’

From preparing the field and planting through the harvest itself, farmers traditionally held ceremonies as a show of respect and gratitude toward what they call the “owners of the forest,” a reference to the spiritual guardians believed in Maya tradition to watch over the land.

Not every community has let the practice lapse. Pedro Tamay, a farmer from the comisaría of Xcabanché, said residents there still organize the primicia ceremony every year, calling it one of the most important dates on the community calendar.

But farmer Alejandro Cauich said newer generations are increasingly leaving the old practices behind, pointing to social change and the spread of technology as the two forces pulling young people away from the rituals their parents and grandparents once relied on.

The concern in Peto echoes similar warnings from Maya communities elsewhere on the Peninsula, where deforestation and shifting land use tied to large-scale agriculture have coincided with a decline in traditional practices tied to the farming calendar.

Fast Facts

• Location: Peto and its comisarías (outlying communities), southeastern Yucatán, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) from Mérida
• Ceremonies at risk: rogativas (rain prayers), primicias (first-harvest offerings) and ofrendas tied to the planting and harvest cycle
• Xcabanché comisaría still holds an annual primicia ceremony, according to local farmers
• Farmers cite social change and technology as drivers behind the decline in younger generations’ participation

With reporting from Por Esto!