Religious Beliefs
Maya Religious Beliefs
The Maya had over 160 gods that they believed in. They also believed that blood gave the gods strength. Anther thing they believed was that the gods had the power to kill their crops with hail or save their crops with rain. So they gave lots of offerings and sacrifices to the gods. they offered the gods: plants, food, flowers and jade. They even sacrificed people! The Maya had two main calendars. One was a daily calendar based on the solar (sun) year. It was made up of 18 months of 20 days, plus 5 "unlucky" days. this was a total of 365 days as in our calendar. The second calendar was the sacred or ritual calendar. It was called the Sacred Round. The Sacred Round was based on 13 months of 20 days, making a 260 day calendar. It had two cycles that worked together to give each day a name. One cycle had the numbers 1 to 13 on it and on the other there was a set of 20 day names. Each name represented a god. Each different day name and number combination only occurred once every 260 days. Only priests could read this calendar and they used it to decide which days to plant or go to war and so on. Some priests in Mexico still use the Sacred Round today. Aztec Religious Beliefs
Religion was central to Aztec life and society. The Aztecs believed that humans needed gods to survive and it was important that they pleased the gods. Some of their gods they adopted from other Mesoamerican groups. For example Tlaloc the god of rain and Quetzalcoatl a feathered serpent were both adopted from other groups. The Aztecs called themselves the people of the sun, and believed that the sun was a warrior who fought forces of darkness each night. They believed the only way to keep the sun strong was with blood. Most of their sacrifices had blood in them and in Tenochtitlan, the capitol, several thousand people were sacrificed each year. Scholars believe that the Aztecs used sacrifices to scare other cities. The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice more than any other Mesoamerican group. To honor their corn goddess they cut off the heads of women. Some people that were going to be sacrificed might have gone willingly believing that they would join the sun in its daily battle. |
Recreation
Maya Recreation
A religious game the Maya played was pok-a-tok. It was played by two noble teams and the object of pok-a-tok was to hit a solid rubber ball through one of six stone rings. Players could only their hips, wrists and elbows. The losing team was sacrificed and the captain of the losing team was beheaded. People from all levels of society placed bets on the game and slaves, land and homes could be lost or gained in a game. |
Aztec Recreation
Aztecs enjoyed music dancing and Nobles enjoyed hunts. They also played patolli. Patolli was played on a crossed shape board divided into 52 squares 5 times around the board represented the 260 day calendar. The first person to go around 5 times won. They threw white beans marked with holes to see how many spaces they would move. They used colored stones as game pieces. All classes played patolli. Another game was tlachtli similar to Mayan pok-a-tok. Only nobles played tlachtli. The tlachtli court was I shaped and was surrounded by high walls. A small ring went over the court from either side. Two teams faced eachother on either side. The object of tlachtli was to get a ball through the ring without using your hands or feet. People bet on the teams. Tlachtli courts were built near the most important temples. |