Editing Chichicastenango (section)

==Market==
[[File:Chichicastenango market.jpg|left|thumb|Chichicastenango Market]]
Chichicastenango hosts market days on Thursdays and Sundays where vendors sell handicrafts, food, flowers, pottery, wooden boxes, condiments, medicinal plants, candles, pom and [[copal]] ([[Incense|traditional incense]]), [[Lime (mineral)|cal]] ([[limestone|lime stones]] for preparing tortillas), grindstones, pigs and chickens, [[machetes]], and other tools.

Among the items sold are textiles, particularly women's blouses. Masks used by dancers in traditional dances, such as the [[Baile de la Conquista|Dance of the Conquest]], are also manufactured in Chichicastenango.

===Church of Santo Tomás===
{{main|Iglesia de Santo Tomás}}
Next to the market is the 400-year-old church of Santo Tomás. It is built atop a [[Pre-Columbian]] temple platform, and the steps originally leading to a temple of the pre-Hispanic [[Maya civilization]] remain venerated.  K'iche' [[Maya priesthood|Maya priests]] still use the church for their rituals, burning [[incense]] and candles. In special cases, they burn a chicken for the gods. Each of the 20 stairs that lead up to the church stands for one month of the [[Maya calendar]] year. Another key element of Chichicastenango is the Cofradia of [[Pascual Abaj]], which is an ancient carved stone venerated nearby and the Maya priests perform several rituals there. Writing on the stone records the doings of a king named [[Tohil]] (Fate).<ref>[http://www.epigraphy.org/volume_17.htm Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications, Vol. 17, 1988 ''A Decipherment of the Chichicastenango Stone'' (22 pp) John S. Carroll -p 31 ]</ref>

The [[Chichicastenango Regional Museum]] lies in its grounds.