Tejutepeque is a district in the Cabañas department of

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. It has a population of 20,000.

History

Tejutepeque is thought to be one of 59 surviving settlements that already existed in 1524 when the Spanish first arrived in what is now El Salvador. It became a municipality in 1847 and was incorporated into Cabañas in 1873, having formerly been part of the Cuscatlán department. It officially became a town in 1879 and a city in 1996. The name of the municipality is composed of the

Nahuat Nawat (academically Pipil, also known as Nahuat) is a Nahuan language native to Central America. It is the southernmost extant member of the Uto-Aztecan family. Before Spanish colonization it was spoken in several parts of present-day Central ...

words “tejut” or “texut” meaning “embers”, and “tepec” meaning “hill”.

Traditions

Each October, the municipality has festivities in honor of its patron saint,

Saint Raphael the Archangel Raphael ( , ; "God has healed") is an archangel first mentioned in the Book of Tobit and in 1 Enoch, both estimated to date from between the 3rd and 2nd century BCE. In later Jewish tradition, he became identified as one of the three heavenly v ...

. It also holds a special procession on Palm Sunday.

References

{{Cabañas Department Municipalities of the Cabañas Department