DÍA DEL CRISTO NEGRO DE ESQUIPULAS

This festival is held every year in Esquipulas, a town in the Chiquimula region of eastern Guatemala. On January 15, pilgrims from all over Central America flock to the basilica to venerate the Black Christ, a wooden sculpture delivered in 1595 by the artisan Quirio Cataño. The colorful processions are accompanied by traditional dances, such as the Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians), a dance inherited from the Conquista.