Guatemala Events and Festivals

12/07/2009 - 12/07/2009Burning the Devil

There are echoes of Europe's Dia de San Juan in this festival of fire. Households across the country build little houses of reeds or, more commonly, heaps of the unwanted rubbish and junk that has accumulated over the year. Locals then set light to it in the street, in this time-honoured tradition they call 'La Quema del Diablo'. In so doing they are purging their homes of evil spirits. The timing coincides with the eve of the Festival of the Immaculate Conception, whose fearless struggles with the devil are legendary. She is an important figure here - being the patron saint of Guatemala City, as well as that of the Americas in general. Through the evening, celebrants dressed as devils chase squealing children into their houses. In the Convent of La Conception in Antigua Guatemala, an effigy of the devil is ritually torched.