Passion Play
These photographs are of the Passion Play, performed in Acancéh, Yucatán on Holy Friday, Easter 2012.
Acancéh is located 21 Kilometers southwest of Mérida, the capital city of the Yucatán state in Mexico. Founded before 300AD, it was an early classic Maya settlement and active to and after the arrival of the Spanish. Today, the town is built around and on the remains of the original settlement, making it an excellent location to observe the overlapping of traditional Maya and Colonial architecture.
To remember and celebrate the story of Jesus Christ’s death, an essential moment in Christianity, the local citizens present the Passion Play each year with the local architecture as the setting. Visitors come from around the Yucatán as well as distant parts of Mexico to see their version of this traditional Catholic play. Community members are the actors, dressing up in simple to elaborate costumes. A blaring sound system playing the actors’ dialogue combined with a thunderous soundtrack can be heard through out the center of town as the play unfolds. From the trial and condemnation, to punishment, to carrying the cross, each stage of the play is presented with the final act taking place in front of one of the community’s still standing Maya pyramids adorned with fresh cut trees and across from the main Catholic Church.
In the Maya tradition, the importance of knowing history and seeing it’s repeating patterns allowed the pre-Hispanic Maya to take control of their lives and destiny. With this yearly performance of Christ’s death, today's Maya participants celebrate their commitment to both the past and modern traditions.