Native Guatemalans in Omaha are inviting others to the annual Santa Eulalia Festival.
This year's celebration at Creighton University will feature traditional Mayan dancers as well as a Mass. Food will be available.
"We just want to show our culture and Maya culture," said Franco Gaspar, president of the Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim, which seeks to enhance the Mayan community in Omaha through arts and culture, education and health programs.
The dancers live in Omaha, and the costumes have been brought for the festival from the city of Santa Eulalia in northwestern Guatemala.
Dancers will be dressed as animals as part of Santa Eulalia tradition, which signifies "they share the life with the animals, with the trees, because everything is alive, everything has spirit," Gaspar said.
The festival will begin with a Mass in Spanish and the Mayan language of Q'anjob'al, Gaspar said.
Afterward, it will move to the Creighton student center, where there will be arts and crafts for sale, dancing and a marimba band featuring Guatemalan instruments. There is no admission charge.
"Every year we try to improve it a little bit," said Gaspar, who said this is about the fifth year for the celebration.
He estimated there are about 1,000 native Santa Eulalians living in Omaha.
The Mass will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at St. John Church on campus. The festival starts at 3:30 p.m. at the Skutt Student Center and ends at 8 p.m.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1084, roseann.moring@owh.com
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