To the sound of the tun and the chirimía the dancing characters will enter the Central Park of Rabinal, showing off their ornamented dresses and presenting an ethno drama, which is the main cultural activity of the celebration of Corpus Christi.

In this drama, worth the sight, the masks cover the faces of the main characters, and only the girl princess, Uchuch Gug, shows her face. Hob Toj, the most important king of the pre-Hispanic rabinales, had a son named Rabinal Achí, a leader who would inspire the best artistic expression of the indigenous conception of the world.

This display of color and sound is part of the group of traditional dances that were born during the colonial period, dances like El Venado (The Deer), Toritos (Little Bulls) Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians), La Conquista (The Conquest), El Coste–o (The man from the coast), El Chico Mudo (The Mute Boy), Los Animalitos (The Little Animals) or Las Flores (The Flowers).

The music and the set designing diversity that is reunited in the town, are not the only reason to approach to this remote place of Baja Verapaz. The constant works in the paved access road to Rabinal allows a comfortable and quick trip.

Rabinal was one of the first settlements of the Dominicans in the area of the Verapaces, and 1537 is known as the year of its foundation. Since then, this place has being a crib of national folklore: creating the color of the jícaras and guacales (gourd cups and bowls) and the flavor of pinol and boxboles. Traditions and customs that you can still feel around on the streets of this peaceful town.

The Central Park is a combination of singular beauty. The Catholic Church built at the end of the XVI Century stands out, with its small extension of chapels, which mark the four corners of the plaza. It's in here where the market is found, in which you can purchase merchandise from a zone wealthy in agriculture and handcrafts. The Sunday is the perfect day to spend in the plaza, where you can buy some of its famous oranges.

The community museum gives testimony of the most important but also the most harsh events of the history of Rabinal. Hundreds of pictures are the silent face of the killing episodes in the zone, at times where the warfare was in its bloodier moments.

According to a Pre-Colombian millenary tradition, as shown in the Popol-Vuh and Rabinal Achí, the rabinales made utensils and musical instruments using the morro (calabash fruit).

During the months of August thru October, the morro fruit is green and ripe. This is the moment when they extract its pulp and boil it. After drying it in the sun, they paint it with red and yellow oil paints. And this is how they obtain the cuencos or guacales (bowls) that they use to drink beverages and coffee, the jícaras (small gourd cups) to eat the chilate with cacao and the chinchines (musical instrument) to accompany the dances.

But, if there is one thing from the local handcrafts that has made Rabinal famous is its ceramic. The modern families of artisans have evolved the market with its designs and colors. That is why, it is worthwhile visiting one of its manufacturing enterprises, where they do the mud, and where the tourist will gladly be invited to come in.

There is a place called Capilla de Barro, where the artisans get great quality raw materials. Then, in their homes they use it to do the large vases with houses, vases for candles, lamp bases and flower vases. An art that reflects the landscapes and colors of this zone of the country, which will surprise the visitors.

The traditional music festivals like Rabinal Achí allow the continuity of the autochthonous and ancestral music instruments. According to the intellectual Linda Lee O'Brien in the Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Guatemalan traditional music shows a bigger influence of the Pre-Colombian and Spaniard musical traditions than from the more recent ones. The tun consists in a horizontal percussion tube with two vibrating reeds. The gong made with the tortoise shell is used in the dance of El Venado. The flute called xul, tzijolaj or pito (whistle) varies its longitude and holes depending on the desired sound. The groups of strings come from a colonial prototype of violins, from which resulted the rabels. The musicians dedicated to this type of music are a last generation of artists which keep alive a resonant creativity that, for now, hasn't had echo among the young ones.

This article has been elaborated thanks to the collaboration of the Grupo Gestor de Turismo de Rabinal (Rabinal's Tourism Group) and the Instituto de Ensenanza para el Desarrollo Sostenible, IEPADES.