Mayan practice the offering act in several natural and home altars. These data exhibit complex configurations of commonality and variability, suggesting the potential flexibility and latent fungibility of ritual exchange.
Maya cities like Tikal (Guatemala) and Chichen Itza (Mexico), respectively, contain massive stone temples where important rituals take place.
Ceremonies and observances honouring or appealing to their deities were interwoven throughout the year, and their rulers were seen as important intermediaries to the gods.
The 260-day Tzolk'in Calendar and its 365-day counterpart, Haab, dictated when various ceremonies took place, as well as yearly agricultural events.
This Maya culture also saw the physical world as intimately interwoven with the spiritual one.
offerings
Offering is part of the Mayan practices. Being the fire the favourite to offer blood, food, resins, words, songs and music. Offerings are seen as part off having a life balance with the spiritual world
Numerous deities populated the Maya pantheon, including gods for physical elements like rain and demigod-like heroes who fought for the good of humanity.
Maya ceremonies often included dancing, usually involving the rulers who were called upon to intercede with the gods on their people's behalf. Evidence indicates that royals would sometimes wear face masks representing the gods during these ceremonies.
Not every ceremony involved blood. Offerings often consisted of food, being cacao an essential part or incense. But, in some cases, blood was called for. This would often take the form of ritual mutilation, carried out by the rulers on behalf of their people.
There's a good deal of evidence that Maya kings would cut or pierce themselves, with bone awls, stone blades and even the spines of stingrays to draw blood as an offering to the gods.
Connecting with natural elements, the ancestors, directions, and nahual energies through rituals of offerings are a form of paying life debts, bring health, harmony, and the realization of many worlds coexisting in one.