Of particular importance in Guatemala tradition is Cofradia. Cofradia is a tradition that came with the Spanish conquest. It was originally intended as a device by which to convert the Maya into Catholoicism by supplanting the agricultural calendar with the Christian calendar. However, the Cofradia system introduced by the Spanish was so similar to the Maya pantheistic tradition that the two have melded together into a folk Catholicism unique to Guatemala.

The Cofradia is the guild, or literally translated the “brotherhood,” that cares for the village’s patron saint effigy and other religious artifacts. Special clothing is worn by Cofradia members and their wives for Cofradia activities. Rituals include keeping household shrines, decorating statues to personify cosmological beings and carrying images of supernatural beings in public procession.

Cofradia as it exists today is sufficiently removed from Roman Catholic tradition that local priests play no part in Cofradia organization or activities Indeed, Cofradia is merely tolerated, rather than promoted, by the official Church.