Maya paper

Ancient Mayans were polytheists. They worshipped several gods. Many of their deities were named after natural phenomena. Maya land is mostly subtropical; hence the sun shone most days of the year. Thus ancient Mayan worshipped a sun god. The area of Maya land bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were, and are still buffeted by hurricane storms accompanied by heavy rainfall. Thus the Mayans had a Rain god. Thus we see that:

“The Mayans had a great respect for the powers of nature and so they assumed that these natural phenomena were controlled by gods…All Maya gods are related to nature. Sunrise, sunset, rainfall and sunshine all were important to the people’s survival so it isn’t surprising that they believed gods controlled all the elements” (Brown, Rebecca, 1996).

Again, according to Rebecca Brown:

“Religion was a strong force in the Maya life and regulated almost everything. Because of its importance, priests were the highest class of citizens. Frequently, they were also the ruling chiefs. Only priests were educated to know all of the gods, prayers and rituals. Ordinary people were not allowed to enter the temples. The Supreme Being and the creator of the universe was a king god named Hunab Ku. The next most important gods were those of the sun and the moon. The corn god was responsible for a successful harvest”. (Brown, Rebecca, 1996)

In rural Maya land as is common with rural populations all over the world, we see remnants of the worship of these traditional deities either solely on their own merit, or side by side with modern religions such as Christianity, which was brought to them by the Spaniards. In Guatemala for instance, after centuries of persecution of traditional Mayan religious worshippers, respite came their way with its recognition in the 1985 Constitution which guaranteed freedom of worship for all, irrespective of their faith: