FESTIVAL KA'KAW 2025
july
summer camp
cacao medicine

The Maya erected stelae—i.e., stone slabs or pillars—on which they carved representative figures and important dates and events in their rulers’ lives. To describe a given date more accurately, the Maya instituted the “Long Count,” a continuous marking of time from a base date. The Calendar was the base date used by the Maya for the start of the “Long Count” and the first “Great Cycle,” a period of 5,125 years that ends on December 21, 2012 CE.

Indigenous medicine In Mexico, traditional medicine – particularly that of indigenous groups – is extremely varied. This is likely due to the considerable number of Mexican indigenous groups and the country's incredible biodiversity, which includes deserts, mountains, coastal regions and tropical jungles.

The Maya and the Aztecs believed that cacao was discovered by the gods in a mountain and was to be given to the people following their creation. The Maya held a yearly festival to honor the cacao god Ek Chuah, which included several offerings and rituals to him. Although sustaining the high possibility that is was not a native Mesoamerican crop, the cacao tree was one of the ancient Maya and Aztec’s most prized.