Mayan Religion:
Gods and Sacrifice
No god was more important than Itzamná, god of creation and agriculture.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo is the classic source of information about mass sacrifice by the Aztecs. A literate soldier in Cortes' company, Diaz claimed to have witnessed such a ritual. "We looked over toward the Great Pyramids and watched as [the Aztecs] ... dragged [our comrades] up the steps and prepared to sacrifice them," he wrote in his Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain), published posthumously in 1632. "After they danced, they placed our comrades face up atop square, narrow stones erected for the sacrifices. Then, with obsidian knives, they sawed their breasts open, pulled out their still-beating hearts, and offered these to their idols."
Source: http://descendantofgods.tripod.com/id39.html
Tlatchli Court
When in Tikal...
To the Mesoamericans honoring the gods (who would rain down all sorts of nasty punishments on humans) was top priority. All Mesoamerican cities built temples that were meant to resemble mountains to the most important gods such as the Sun god. Other temples dedicated to other gods would be spread out throughout the city. The minor gods might even have to share a temple or settle for a simple shrine. Unlike in Egypt, the Mayans built pyramid that served the living rather than the dead.
The Mayan pyramid temples were built of limestone and arranged in a step formation. Some of the largest temples like the one in Tikal and Tenochtitlan were over 200 feet high. Mayan temples were covered in carving depicting scenes of their gods or battles.
In Mayan times separation of religion and state was unknown. The king was called Halac Uinic which translates to true man. The Halac Uinic was considered a god-king who led the religious rituals as well as deciding when to go to war. In Mayan times the king had many roles from army leader, to ruler of his city state, to high priest to ball player. After his death, a male heir would be chosen by the king to succeed him.
Play Ball (and Die Trying)
Mayan priests (Chilam) came from noble families and had a wide variety of jobs from keeper of the sacred calendar, offering daily sacrifices to the gods, and organizing the sacred ball games.
No Mesoamerican city worth its weight in jaguar skins was complete without a ball court. The people of Mesoamerica played a complicated game called Tlatchli using a rubber ball and stone hoops but instead of making slam dunks, they had to bounce the ball into one, only using their hips. Two teams of about 4 players each had to keep passing the ball back and forth. Points were awarded or taken away for hitting certain parts of the court or getting the ball through the ring.
The game was often played for fun but had a darker side. Based on Mayan murals and Spanish accounts, the losing side was sacrificed by decapitation. It is even rumored that the losing team's captain had his head used in place of the ball. Even when Tlatchli was not played for the gods it was a brutal game. Ball players were often described as 'perpetually bruised' or disfigured. Of course that sort of thing tends to happen when you are repeatedly hit with a 10 pound object.
Gods of the Mayans
The Mayans placed so much importance on their religion that they placed them in the highest rungs on the social ladder. Just below the god-king were the priests and nobles. These people were connected to the royal family- either by blood, marriage, or business. They were the ones who supervised the peasants, collected taxes, led the armies, advised the king, and maintained the temples.
Mayans believed that everything from plants to animals to people were all connected to the gods. There were gods and goddesses for nearly everything. The Mayans had 160 total gods. Some of them were minor village gods, other demon gods, and others that were powerful gods that controlled the movement of the sun, the crops, and the wind. The Mayans also had some pretty interesting gods too, like everything from Acan, the god of wine to Ah Ciliz, the god of Solar Eclipses and Zotz, the god of Bats.
The Mayans believed that their gods could make the sun shine, the crops grow, and determine which side wins or loses during battle. To keep the gods happy the Mayan priests performed rituals and prayers that would keep the Mayan gods from raining down a whole mess of bad stuff from outbreaks of disease to volcanic eruptions. Because of their connection with the gods, the priests could foretell the future and served as advisers during important events such as planting crops and going to war.
Human Sacrifice- Mayan Style
"Life is because of the gods; with their sacrifice they gave us life.... They produce our sustenance... which nourishes life."
When the Spanish landed on the shores of Mexico in 1519, they wrote back home, horrified, by the human sacrifices performed by the indigenous people. The religion of the Aztecs and Mayans were every Spanish priests’ nightmare and was clear evidence that these people were in the grip of devil worship.
The Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas all performed human sacrifice. To them, the shedding of human blood kept the universe in harmony. According to Mayan and Aztec mythology, the gods had sacrificed themselves so that humans could live. If the gods were willing to give their own lives, how could humans not do the same?
Sacrifices to gods were a daily ritual in Mayan and Aztec culture. A priest using their complex calendar system would be able to determine which day was marked for which god. Some gods required animal sacrifices. Others were offered sacrifices of a particular plant or mineral. For example the god Quetzalcoatl–the hummingbird god– would be given a gift of butterflies and hummingbirds. But the most sacred gift that one could give a god was human blood. Each day the king and priests would cut themselves to offer a small amount of blood to be given to the deity associated with that particular day.
The most important deities like the sun god or rain god would be given the best sacrifice of all; a freshly beating human heart. The most memorable way a sacrifice was performed was to take the victims (sometimes hundreds at a time) to the top of the temple-pyramid, where the victim would be held down by one priest while another cut open their chest and ripped out their still beating heart. The high priest would take a bite of the heart and offer the rest to the god. The bodies of the victims would be thrown (if you were a commoner) or carried (if you were a noble) down the steps. During festival days the steps literally ran red with blood.
The victims came all over Mesoamerica. Some were captive enemy soldiers, others were the children of nobles, and others were volunteers. To be sacrificed was seen as the highest honor that one could do in Mayan society. Before a sacrifice the soon to be victim would be wined and dined in a life of luxury.
The Mayan calendar specified not only to what god a sacrifice needed to be performed but what victim and how they were supposed to die. For example, the rain god Tlaloc required the tears of children. Therefore, the priests were required to make these sacrifices particularly painful. Others were burned alive, buried in caves, partially eaten, or shot to death with arrows.