Contemproary mayan games

While modern readers may put much weight on at such a reason, to the Maya it was a matter of life and death and one of the reasons for human sacrifice. The gods needed human blood and hearts to keep the sun and moon in orbit. Some ball games were played to resolve bitter disputes between rival cities or as a proxy for war. The Maya also saw the game as a battle between the gods of death and the gods of life or between good and evil.

They also saw it as a reminder of the Hero Twins, who overcame death and became demi-gods themselves. Thus, the game symbolizes regeneration and life. This article is part of our larger resource on the Mayans culture, society, economics, and warfare.

Click here for our comprehensive article on the Mayans. The walls of its constructions reveals the story of the Mayan ball game, which they called Pok-ta-pok , due to the noise produced by the ball when it was hit by the players or hit the floor. They were sacrificed and transformed into the sun and the moon. During the rise of the Mayan civilization, the game became an ancestral tradition, in which the rite represented the entrance to the underworld in order to have a fight between light and darkness.

The ball court, at the base of the temple, represented the underworld, constructed with a sunken shape that eluded the Xibalba. Its walls, engraved with figures of Mayan gods and demons, had a ring that the ball had to pass through. The platforms around it were for the governors and priest to watch the game. The ball represented the paths of the sacred stars sun, moon and Venus ; it was made of rubber, measured 35 cm, and weighed around three kilograms, without air inside.

Only the best warriors of the community could participate in one of the two teams. In the game, they wore headdresses and paint, leather skirts of some sacred animals or loincloths, and protectors on the hips to cushion the impact of the ball and to increase the speed of the rebound.

Everything was under the supervision of a central referee. The reasons for the ritual vary. On one hand, they used to do it to maintain the order of the cosmos and the fertility of the lands triumph of life in times of shortage evils of man.

On the other hand, it was considered a substitute for war. According to their beliefs, human blood is the bond that unites the gods and the human being, hence the sacrifices were fed to the gods and paid the debts that humans have with them. And it is that the Maya believed that they owe their lives to the gods , And the way to please them was to offer tobacco, incense, food and the blood itself was the way to prove them.

Also called"Pok a Pok", by the sound produced by the ball being hit against the walls of the courts or the arms and hips of the players. The Maya used to play ball, and the existence of different old ball courts in the Yucatan peninsula proves this.

The Mayans considered this game as divine, where the main objective was to shoot the ball into a stone rings arranged for it. It was believed that the game was a constant struggle between light and darkness, hence the winning team represented light and its strength over the darkness. Generally, the losing team was sacrificed and offered to the gods. The cenotes are natural water wells of great beauty, being the largest along the entire Mayan Riviera.

They are geomorphological forms, like small caves, that contain in their interior great underground rivers. The Mayas gave a sacred and divine character to these wells, seeing them as the ideal place for the realization of human sacrifices and worship of the gods. According to Maya belief, the cenotes were the space where the road to"Xibalba"began, the place where the souls of the dead travel to paradise.

The cenotes were doors to another world of happiness and eternity. This tradition, still held in Mexico, was intended to honor the dead. The Maya believed that death was something completely natural and that the dead had life so honoring and remembering them was fundamental. It was customary to hold a festival with food, incense and music, where the death of ancestors was celebrated.

Whose meaning in Mayan Yucateco is"breaking crockery,"it consisted of a traditional festival that was held with the goal of asking for rain and continues to be held every June 24 in Mexico. The festival began at dawn with the children collecting animals, usually aquatic reptiles, and then introducing them into different vessels.