The main festival in Chichicastenango is celebrated every 21st December during the winter solstice in honour of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Throughout the pre-Columbian period, the Indians knew only two types of musical instruments, drums and wind instruments (flutes, trumpets, whistles and ocarinas) made of cane stalks, bamboo or clay. Instruments made of copper such as trumpets, trombones, saxophones and horns were soon adopted by the natives from the Spanish conquerors. The use of the foreign musical instruments and the adoption of a foreign type of music brought noticeable changes to the folklore of the indigenous people. - 1977
