Fun fact that I have not been paying attention to: Maya can be a noun or an adjective and refers to the people and culture. Mayan with an N is only used for the language. I'll probably continue to mess that up.
A man came to Casa Xelaju to teach us how to perform a Maya ceremony. I didn't document it well and also it was a long time ago, so I apologize that this post won't be as detailed as I'd like it to be.
The Maya were polytheists, but I understand that they also believed in a creator god who was above the rest. Today there are indigenous people who continue to believe and practice the old religion, but the majority are Christians who retain, to some degree or another, Maya traditions. The question is, which traditions and ceremonies are compatible with Christianity and are just a different way of worshiping the same true God, and which parts aren't? For example, an outsider might assume that an indigenous person is worshiping the sun, or the rain, but the truth might be that they are giving thanks to God for providing the sun and rain.
The ceremony that we learned about (some students participated, some watched) is performed to give thanks to the creator god and to ask for continued blessings. It's a smaller version than what is performed in the mountains, since we didn't want to burn the school down.
First the man drew a circle in the dirt, starting from the north and going counterclockwise. No one was allowed to set foot inside the circle because the ground inside is sacred. Circles are a special shape in Maya culture, when one is drawn for a ceremony it's to ask permission of the earth... I'm not sure I understood the Spanish completely when he was talking so I think that's what it's for.
Next sugar was dumped on the circle, once again starting from the north and going counterclockwise. Then little coal-balls of pine and sap and other good smelling stuff, and incense like eucalyptus and myrrh. The whole group put down the ingredients together. The individual ingredients can vary, I think, depending on what you have. Last were candles -- a BUNCH of candles. Each color has a significance and is used to ask for a particular blessing/protection, which is super interesting. White, black, yellow, and red are arranged on their respective cardinal point, with light blue in the middle. I heard later that white, black, yellow, and blue are special because they're the four colors that corn come in.
With that done, it was time to light 'er up!
Dana was foolishly determined to get one tiny candle lit.
The last step was to throw alcohol on the fire, an offering that produced an awesome result.
Wooo fire! And I thought Catholic churches used a lot of candles.
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