Hive owners shared honey with the community. Offerings were made to images of the four Chaaks (rain gods), and the rims of offering plates were covered in honey. It may have also been associated with the beginning of the darkest months of the year in fall. Hunters and fisherman blessed their tools and performed blood letting ceremonies.īee keepers prepared themselves for the coming activities by fasting. Predictions for the year were made and individual priests were assigned their festival obligations for the year.Ī month to honor the god of hunting, Ek Zip.

Physicians and shamans made offerings to Itzamna, the god of magic and patron of priests. On the first day of the year there was gift giving and drinking. The first month of the year, preceded by fasting and abstinence. Pop - Mat (symbol of community and marriage) The following is translation of each month name and a brief list of what was to be celebrated during each: Contact period documents, especially the writings of Diego de Landa, do relate the existence of a festival cycle that followed the Haab.

It is the 260-day Tzolk'in, not the Haab that informs one of their personality traits and destiny.

These are unpredictable days, not for planning important events or traveling away from home.ĭespite the fact that a tourist can buy a charm with their 'Maya month sign' in most of the publicly accessible ruins as if they were related to the concept of Greek zodiacal signs, the modern Maya assign no horoscope-like significance to these signs. The final five days of the Haab cycle are the 19th month, called Wayeb. The first number of any given month is mathematically in the place of zero (a concept with which the Maya were aware), but written hieroglyphically as 'seating.' The patron deity of the month assumes the throne on day zero and stays for the next 19 days. As with the Tzolk'in, each day is represented by a number-glyph combination, but the numbers are now 20, one for each day of a 20 day month. Together they form the 365-day, solar-based year. The Haab is made up of 18 months of 20 days each and a final short month of only 5 days. In operation together, the Haab and Tzolk'in create a larger, 52-year cycle called the Calendar Round that was used not only by the Maya but also by every other culture in Mesoamerica. In point of fact, one cannot find a Haab date that is not recorded with a Tzolk'in date within ancient hieroglyphic texts. Here was the race of creatures that could learn and were willing and able to communicate with the deities.The Eighteen months of the Haab (Image adapted from Voss 2000) Lastly, humanity was created to the delight of the gods. The third time the deities formed creatures out of wood, but this too was troublesome.Īlthough these wood creatures could multiply they had blank minds and no knowledge or care for their creators. The second race was made of mud and also proved unsatisfactory. The first race was the ancestors of the animals of today which were unsatisfactory to the Gods because they could only talk through noise. Then the Dieites decided that they needed creatures who could talk to them by prayer and ritual so they created three races of beings before they finally managed to form humankind. Since these gods had treated Hungry Woman so roughly, they gave her the right to a type of human sacrifice, the right to eat the dead when they were buried within her. Then they each took hold of an arm and leg, stretching her until the Earth was formed. Two of the gods typically named Quetzalcoatl and Tohil, took Hungry Woman and tossed her down upon the ocean. Fasting was a common preparation for these ceremonies which usually included large feasts, heavy drinking and sometimes orgies.Īccording to what we know of Mayan myth, in the beginning after the gods were formed (which is unknown how they were formed), there was only sky and water. Little is actually known of their celebrations, but what is known is that there were 18 months in the Mayan calendar and each of these months had it’s ceremonies. Mayan festivals were based on agriculture and the abundance of it, and the seasons. All Mayan celebration and in fact almost every aspect of life was connected with religion. They erected a great number of pyramid and square temples which were brightly painted with pictures of gods, warriors, and high officials. The Mayan people were exceedingly religious. Zotz is a fearsome Mayan Demon and a lord of the underworld.

Zotz mayan god