The Riviera Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula is steeped in the legacy of Mayan culture and the Mayan ceremony celebrates human connection with the universe.

Before uniting the couple through marriage, a shaman purifies the altar with copal, a resin from trees that has been used for centuries in many Mayan Rituals.

The shaman offers Ixchell the goddess of water seeds and petals with the incense being a gift for the Aluxes who protect the place.

To celebrate the ceremony, the shaman requests permission from the four cardinal points by ringing a shell in all four directions.

The meaning of this ceremony is that you represent the fifth cardinal point that unites heaven and earth.

The ceremony then continues with an exchange of gifts. The color red is associated with masculinity and the color white with femininity.

Now the shaman gives the man the white flowers which are a symbol of purity and the woman the red flowers which symbolize blood.Then they exchange flowers to restore purity to the woman and blood to the man.

The shaman then gives them the cocoa beans representing the strength of the spirit of man and the corn that god gave to the first woman.