For the Maya gods, a Maya pyramid at Tonina (ca. 700 AD)
A Maya creation story
Maya people believed that the world was created by One Deer. One Deer created the mother and father of the Maya gods (like Brahma and Gayatri or Gaia and Kronos). Then the mother and father created many other gods. They created the gods of the crops like the Corn God, the god of rain, the god of fire, the god of smoke, and the gods of the forests.
Native American creation stories
Who were the Maya?
Central American religion
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The mother and father also created four men, who were the ancestors of all men. Some stories say that the mother and father first made men out of mud. But these mud men were stupid, with no brains, and so the mother and father destroyed them.
Next the mother and father made men out of wood. But these wood men were dull, with no emotions, and they couldn’t feel gratitude to their makers (compare the Jewish story of Noah). Finally the mother and father tried again and made men out of corn (maize) – and that worked just right. Corn was the main food for Mayan people, so they had a lot of popular stories about corn, like the story of the opening of Maize Mountain.
Where does corn come from?
The Mayan Corn God
The story of Maize Mountain
A woman lays a parade carpet of flowers and grass for Holy Week in Guatemala
What holidays did Mayan people celebrate?
There were many big religious holidays every year in the Mayan empire. One was the five “Lost Days” at the end of the Mayan solar calendar every year. Mayan priests and leaders held big parades to celebrate the holidays. Women laid out grass and leaves and flowers in patterns to make beautiful (but temporary) carpets for the paraders to walk on. (Compare this tradition to the Diwali celebrations in India)
A Maya pottery shark, from Belize
Maya religion and sharks
But even before the Mayans grew plants, they were fishing people, and they seem to have hunted sharks – our word “shark” may come from the Mayan word – and used shark teeth as a symbol of power. Long after many Mayan people moved away from the coast and became farmers, they still bought shark teeth and carved pictures of sharks.
