The Magical Town of Izamal will premiere the “Páayt’aan” festival from March 17 to 20, a new tourist concept in the State to highlight the ancestral culture, Mayan customs and spirituality, and inner peace.
This new tourist attraction will have a program of 240 activities that will take place in eight venues, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., but the heart of the festival will be on the back esplanade of the former San Antonio de Padua Franciscan convent, in La Ceiba, main stage.
The presentation of this cultural project was carried out by Dr. Gastón Melo Medina, creator, and curator of the cultural project; the secretary of Culture and the Arts, teacher Loreto Villanueva Trujillo; and the mayor of Izamal, Warnel May Escobar, who predicted the success of this production that will star the Peruvian singer Luzmila Carpio who, according to Mariana Landgrave, coordinator of experiences and traditions of the “Páayt’aan” project, is one of the privileged voices of the Peruvian Andes and “sings like a bird”. She will close the concert program on March 20.
However, the activities include traditional Yucatecan gastronomy music, Mayan ceremonies, tours, and coexistence with the population, because selected inhabitants will share their food of the day, they will allow a tour inside their houses, so that they know how the Yucatecan Mayans live, and they will rent a room if the visitor wishes.
Dr. Melo Medina said that they expect 1,500 people to attend this first edition, but it is a cultural program that will be annual and will gradually transcend borders until it becomes a festival with a global impact because many tourists like musical tourism and spirituality. .
This concept does not exist in Yucatan, it was conceived five years ago, but due to budget issues and the pandemic, it had not been presented.
However, now, with the support of Sedeculta, Sefotur, and the state government, it will begin its promotion and projection as a cultural and tourist attraction for the State.
The coordinator Mariana Landgrave explained some details of this festival that will be in the Magical Town of Izamal. It is a concept that is quite accepted among society and there are five festivals of this type in the world that attract many visitors. He knows that the start of a new project is always difficult, especially when there is a deep-rooted custom of conventional tourism of tours of places of interest, but the “Páayt’aan” wants to share and teach many traditions and knowledge of the Yucatecan Mayan people and with this music and spirituality festival they will be able to do it.
“It is a long-term project, the first time it may turn out well but with some lame feet, in the second it will improve and more local artists will be involved, they will see what it is about, we will sing them with this first festival so that they understand music and spirituality”, he explained.
“It is not aimed at foreign tourists, if they come they are welcome, it is a festival for the Peninsula.”
He also clarified that it is not a festival focused on religion, but to feel connected with nature, cultures and ancestral knowledge in Yucatan, where there is no such festival, “Páayt’aan” is a pioneer of a festival with more human overtones, he said .
He said that he sees a great future for this cultural project to the extent that people make it their own, participate, and it will reach the projection as far as the authorities want it. It can even be moved to other regions of Yucatan to make it an itinerant festival every year and be a meeting of the Mayan and non-Mayan culture.
Free experiences
Every day from March 17 to 20
06:15-07:15 a.m.
Sacred fire lighting ceremony.
07:20-08:00 a.m.
Opening of the 4 Rumbos with assembly of Marches of Izamal.
07:30-07:45 a.m.
Meeting of marches in Plaza K’iiwik.
08:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Mayan drinks are prepared and shared to start the day. Courtyard HMM Museum
08:00 – 09:00 a.m.
Opening Ceremony at the 4 Rumbos (The voice of the Ceiba)
08:15 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
La Voz de La Ceiba begins, sonorization of roots, trunk and branches.
3 levels of electronic frequencies.
08:30 a.m. – 08:45 a.m.
Ch’ob’onik reading. Open oracle for the understanding of time. Every day a question of a general and open nature is asked. Collective consultation. Place: The voice of the Ceiba.
09:00 a.m. – 06:00 p.m.
Contemporary Art Exhibition: The Earth upside down.
09:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Listen to the voice of the Ceiba. Live the individual experience of listening to the frequencies of the tree live through headphones. All day
09:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Spin your dreams and desires to the Loom Network through recycled cotton strips with the support of the weavers.
09:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Adoption of plantings of ceibas and endemic trees.
09:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Adoption of seeds of sacred and medicinal plants.
09:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Alejandra Moreno Toscano “The Mayan Codex” (The cycle of Venus)
(Old Hardware Store Gallery / Thursday 17)
09:30 – 10:45 a.m.
CONVERSATORIES:
Luzmila Carpio “The voice of Pachamama”,
“Carlos Mora”, “We are Water”
Arturo González “The Voice of the Desert”
(Old Hardware Store Gallery/Friday 18)
09:35 – 11:00 a.m.
Tonny Karam “The Spirit of Tibet”, “Showan Tavakol “Persian Spirit”,
Federico Tarazona “Spirit of the Andes”
09:35 – 10:45 a.m.
Luis Millet “Investigate the world in the 19th century”,
Richard Hansen “Researching the Maya Preclassic Today” Moderator Gastón Melo
(Old Hardware Store Gallery/ Sunday 20)
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Puksi’ik’al maaya’ob, Mayan Hearts of Socorro Loeza. Storytelling. (Place: The voice of the Ceiba)
10:00 – 11:15 a.m.
Alexis Epelstein Universal Human Spirituality-Mictlan,
Video game and reality Eduardo Dondé “Toltequidad Y Mayicidad” (K’iinam Spirit)
(Old Hardware Store)
10:00 a.m. – 01:00 p.m.
Experiences and traditions: Consultations and personalized experiences.
Participants: sobadores, midwives, traditional doctors, weather readers, meliponiculturists,
bonesetters, herbalists. Repeats at 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
10:30 a.m. – 07:00 p.m.
K’iiwik. Workshops on: Art-Healing, Food, Trades, Artists, Embroidery, Conversationalists, Goldsmiths, Languages, Translators. 20 people maximum.
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Haciendas of the Mayan World Foundation
11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Our songs of Xmajan naj. They will illustrate the 4 directions of the world, the heavens and the Mayan underworld united by the ya’axche, to receive the secret messages. (Place: The voice of the Ceiba)
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Ritual of the Sahumadoras from the sun to the zenith: story about fire. (Place: The voice of the Ceiba)
11:30 a.m. – 01:00 p.m.
Azhar Goraya “Muslim Compassion”,
Juan Carlos Enriquez “The challenges of Faith”,
Mauricio Meschoulam “Monotheism and tsimsum”,
Laura Rosado “Syncretisms”
(Old Hardware Store Gallery/Saturday 19)
12:00 – 01:00 p.m.
Initiation to breathing with the Tree of Life. Alexis Epelstein.
Musicalization for clear vision, alignment and harmony with the network.
(Place: The voice of the Ceiba).
12:00 – 01:00 p.m.
Chukwajt’aan. Fidencio Briceno and Gaston Melo.
Round table Xcaretization, Folklorization and Decolonization.
(only Sunday 20).
01:00 – 01:20 pm
The House of Poetry; Recital poems of the day.
01:20 – 02:20 p.m.
Contest winning poets: Yóoló on Taan.
03:00 – 03:30 p.m.
Ceremony of entrance of the Equinox. (Only Sunday)
03:00 – 04:00 p.m.
Forums for sacred music, Driss Khrouz Artistic Director Fes Festival,
Morocco and Alain Fohr (UNESCO) (Friday 18)
03:00 – 05:00 pm
Workshop “Sounds from the body to technology”. Rap and body.
Taught by Barrio Maya (Saturday 19 and Sunday 20)
04:00 – 05:00 pm
Alexa Ganto. Co-create a positive cultural impact and connect with our environment.
(Place: The voice of the Ceiba)
04:00 – 06:00 pm
Mayan People Experiences; Consultations and personalized experiences. Participants: sobadores, midwives, traditional doctors, weather readers, meliponiculturists, bonesetters, herbalists.
04:30 p.m.
Forums for sacred music:
Gastón Melo, General Commissioner of the Páay’táan Festival
and Alexandra Mixotakis (Director of the Delphi Festival, Greece)
Theme: Spirit of Delphi, spirit of Izamal. (Thursday 17)
04:30 – 05:30 pm
Forums for sacred music:
Ane Pinson Director of the Conques Musical Encounters Festival,
Frederic Leotard of the Center des Musiviens du Monde
and Michel Jermann Sacrëes Journées d’Strassbourg
(Saturday 19)
03:30 – 05:00 pm
Forums for sacred music:
Lázaro Tuz-Chi and Alejandra Moreno Toscano (INAH Historian)
(Sunday 20)
05:00-06:00 pm
Full Moon Circle. (Only Friday 18)
05:00-06:00 pm
Song and word of women for the Earth today.
Voice and percussion by Marina Santillán (Location: La voz de la Ceiba).
(Only Saturday 19)
05:00 – 07:30 pm
Poetry Slam. Open Microphone.
06:00 – 06:30 pm
Word session.
Weavers, incense burners, musicians and specialists share knowledge about knowledge in the Ceiba and the network that it builds during the days of the Festival (Place: La voz de la Ceiba)
06:30 – 07:00 pm
Evening ritual. Every day there are different activities. (Place: The voice of the Ceiba)
06:30 – 07:30 p.m.
Mayan drinks to liven up the afternoon.
07:30 – 09:30 p.m.
Persian Duo Concert (Canada). Plaza Izamná (Only on Saturday 19)
08:00 – 08:30 pm
The Live Ceiba. Animated night lighting EVERY NIGHT.
Does not include video mapping. (Place: The voice of the Ceiba)
08:00 – 09:30 pm
Sack Tzevul Concert
(Rock Maya Tzotzil and Mayan Artists from Yucatan such as Pat Boy and Barrio Maya).
Plaza Izamná (Only Sunday 20)
09:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Soft music sessions to CELEBRATE LIFE. Every night. Amaury León Sosa fuses electronic sounds with the sound frequencies of the Ceiba and invites outstanding musicians. (it’s okay to dance if you want) (Place: La voz de la Ceiba)
There will be eight venues for the festival, some will be closed and with an accessible entrance fee, and others free. The festival will begin with a private ceremony with the lighting of stones with copal resin, which will be lit for the four days of the festival. The back esplanade of the convent will be closed to vehicular traffic because various activities will take place there, mainly concerts of ancestral music, saxophone, rap, including electronics, a device will be installed so that people can listen to the vibrations of the ceiba tree, there will be ancestral rituals, ceremonies of shamans, meeting and talk with midwives, consultation with traditional doctors and bonesetters, stories of the Melipona bee honey harvest, poems, etc.
“There are different activities, some with affordable costs, others with zero costs, others with higher prices such as the freediving course for the equipment used and the advice of specialists. There are 240 activities in the four days”, said Mariana Landgrave.
A part of the inhabitants entered the house rental program. This activity consists of receiving the visitor, a report on the daily life of the family, eating with them the traditional foods of the day, teaching the preparation of Yucatecan food, or renting a room to occupy one, two or three days. The price of this experience is determined by the owner of the house.
The houses for rent during the festival will have a sign indicating that it participates in the cultural program.
Secretary Villanueva Trujillo considered this festival as “a spiritual healing” through Mayan art and culture because with the activities the participants will achieve peace and emotional balance, especially because of the Yucatecans who experienced tension and economic damage due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 19.
“We need this spiritual health, it will be a beautiful cultural environment and a range of activities, it will elevate our spiritual peace,” he said.
The mayor of Izamal stressed that the festival will project this Magical Town even more, thanked Dr. Gastón Melo and his team for choosing this city for this project and will undoubtedly attract a greater number of visitors and leave a good economic benefit to the inhabitants. .
“We have been dreaming of the Páayt’aan for five years, we prepared it, we feel frustrated with the arrival of the pandemic, but today it is already a reality”, emphasized the creator and curator of the festival, who had words of praise for the other creator Enrique Pérez Palomo, an expert who has prepared himself academically and artistically outside of Yucatan.
All the information on “Páayt’aan” is available at www.payataan.com and www.mexicanidad.org.
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