The Mayan Post
Religion
By: Tiara Wilkerson
Mesoamerica (500) - How big of a role does religion play in your life? For the Mayans, religion is a large factor to everyday life. The Mayan religion revolves around beliefs of over 160 gods that are the embodiment of forces of nature (Ex. Sun God - Kinich Ahau). Their gods play major roles in their development, because they Mayans always consult the gods before making a decision. They do many rituals, and learned many things to please their gods, which helped expand their civilization. Using knowledge they believe they gods demand they know, they became a very efficient society. Lots of their knowledge went towards making religious objects, such as the sacred calendar.
A tradition for pleasing gods is sacrifice. Mayans think that because the gods spilled their blood for humanity, that royals should spill their blood for the gods. Not only is royalty sacrificed, but so are prisoners, orphans, slaves, animals, crops, and valuables. Another ritual is rulers of a region retreat into a temple and return in masks and cloaks, essentially embodying a god.
Mayans believe that the gods want them to learn astronomy and math. Resulting in Mayan civilizations being based around religious centers. Understanding astronomy and mathematics influenced them to make more buildings and grow their civilization around astronomic buildings used for religious purposes. This helped Mayan urbanization and helped expand their civilization.
Mayans sacred calendar is called a Tzolk’in. This 260 day calender is believed to be based on the 9 month gestation cycle and astronomy. Each day corresponds to a spirit or god. Only priests can decipher the sacred calendar, and according to the day shown on the calendar, priest could determine whether it was a good day to do something specific, such as farming or religious ceremonies.