A good reason to kill a chicken

Near to San Cristobal de las Casas in Chapas, in a small village called San Juan Chamula, there is a famous church:  the Church of San Juan. Interesting in this church is the visible fusion between the Mayan believes and the catholicism. From outside, no one would imagine what you can find inside! I took pictures only outside the church, as  many Mayan don't like to be photographed. This because they believe that by taking a picture, the soul get trapped in it and cannot be free anymore. 

However, once I entered this little church, a strong smell of dry palm leaves and burning candles invaded my nose. It was incredible: the whole floor was covered with palm leaves, and everywhere little groups of people were praying on the floor with some candles placed in front of them. 

The first thing I thought is that miracles have really to exist, if this church didn't burned down so far! 

I was looking to the huge amount of saint-statues, with strange names which probably rely to the Mayan culture, when I suddenly heard how a chicken got killed in the church! 

I thought that maybe it has something to do with a strange bloody gift to a saint. But a woman told me that it is a ritual against sickness. Very interessant. In a few words: they belive in energies, so when a person gets sick, they go to the church and transfer the sickness from the person to the chicken. After that, they have to kill the chicken, so that the sickness is blocked in it and cannot flow back to the person. She said to me that the strange thing is, that it actually works!

At that time I thought that maybe I also had to kill a chicken: I was full of strange red dots since a week and then I also got a bladder infection. But, this is another story... :-)