16th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
The hidden symbolism of the flower bouquets of Saraguro Sunday Mass

Women from the Saraguro People on the south of Ecuador prepare floral bouquets for the Catholic Church on Sundays. In reality, there is a lot of resistance hidden there. The bouquets were originally in shapes that concealed a lot of symbolism of the Andean Cosmovision. Some figures represent cosmological concepts and principles of astronomical orientation, the agricultural calendar, rituals and festivities that were proper to the indigenous beliefs, not catholic. Women found ways to preserve this ancestral knowledge through the bouquets.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 01.2017
Date Uploaded: 10.2018
Photo Location: Saraguro, Loja, Ecuador
Camera: COOLPIX L340
Copyright: © Joselin Anabell Hernandez Esquivel