03 What Did the Ancient Mayans Believe In?

The Mayan people of Mexico and Central America had the greatest civilization in the New World. The height of Mayan civilization was between 250 and 900. At this time, there were about fourteen million Maya. In forty of their cities, they built huge pyramids that were twenty-two stories high. Why did they build these pyramids? How did the Maya create their civilization? How did they structure their lives and society? Their beliefs guided them.

The Maya believed in time and numbers. They had a great knowledge of mathematics. They invented a number system that used only three symbols, and they invented zero. What would mathematics be without zero? They also made a calendar 2,600 years ago that was very accurate. It had 365 days in a year. There were three kinds of days on their calendar: good, bad, and neutral. People did important things on good or neutral days. They went on a journey, got married, or planted corn only on a good day. Time had a beginning and an end, too. They believed the world was going to end in 2012.

The Maya also believed in astrology;they believed that you could find all truth in the movement of the stars, the sun, and the moon. Astrology controlled their lives and their culture.The priests predicted the future by astrology. They did not have telescopes, but they knew all about the sky. The priests were called “He who knows”and were very important. They wore jewels and special feathers. People carried the priests on their shoulders in the streets. Everyone listened to the priests and believed in their predictions.

As soon as a baby was born, parents took it to the priest. The priest told the parents about the child's destiny. Each day on the Mayan calendar says what a baby born on that day will become. Parents had to bring up the child to be a farmer, a poet, a dancer, or another job the priest predicted. Each person lived according to his or her destiny.

The priests studied the sky to collect information, then they wrote their predictions in books. The Maya invented a writing system that used picture symbols. This was the first writing system in the Americas. They used tree bark for paper and made many books. Only a few books survive. We found a few of these books, but nobody could understand the writing. About fifty years ago, a researcher finally uncovered the meaning of the symbols. That is how we know about Mayan beliefs and predictions.

The Maya believed in many gods: the sun god, the moon god, and many other gods from nature. But the corn god was the most important. Without corn, they had no food. They believed all people came from the corn god. When a child was born, they put the head of the baby between two pieces of wood for several days. The shape of the baby's head became permanently flat and long. They thought this long, flat head looked like corn, which was a sign of high class.They also hung a small ball or bead from the baby's hair so that it fell between the baby's eyes. The child looked at this ball and later became cross-eyed. This was also a sign of beauty and high class.

Around the year 900, the Maya disappeared. We do not know what happened.Later,the Spanish came to their land and destroyed what was left of the Mayan culture, including most of the books filled with their predictions. The descendants of the Mayan people still exist in Mexico and other countries of Central America, such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize. There are still Mayan priests among them, and they still use the old Mayan calendar to make predictions.