The annual celebration of the indigenous carnival takes place on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in the Catholic liturgical calendar and is one of the most important festivities in the communities of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. The carnival in San Martin Tilcajete is characterized by the "cuadrillas" of oiled devils, characters of "recent" incorporation, according to some villagers, but that have become the most popular representation.

The tejate is a pre-Hispanic drink from the valley of Oaxaca that is made with cocoa, corn, mamey bone and rosita de cacao, a white edible flower with a pleasant aroma and sweet flavor that gives the rosital, a very popular tree in Huayapam.

In San Juan Chamula the cemetery is a very peculiar place, where the tombs have no tombstones and the crosses are of multiple colors, there is a theory that some tombs are older than the arrival of the Spaniards, and that the crosses are not Christian but represent the Mayan cross.