The Maya buried their dead with their personal belongings and more importantly with food inside their mouths. The first part is relatively easy to understand, after all many other civilizations have buried their dead with their belongings. Vikings for example would even bury chieftains with their longboats. Across different civilizations the rationale here was that they would need these things in the afterlife.
However burring with food was rather unique to this part of the world. The Maya like so many other people believed in the afterlife, however for them the afterlife was not a peaceful transition where souls would enjoy their time. The journey to the afterlife was arduous, full of challenges and definitely long. Food was much needed for such a long journey.
Xibalba was the name given by the Maya to the underworld. This is the place where the dead would be tested by the gods. For the Maya death was not the time to rest, rather the biggest challenge they would face. Would they eventually succeed the challenges posed by the gods and become immortalized in the stars? Or would they stay in Xibalba?
Today the ancient Mesoamerican celebration of the dead, better known by its modern name; el Día de Muertos, almost overlaps with the Christian celebration of all saints day. This is not a coincidence, rather just another example of syncretism. Christian syncretism is the process by which they adopt pagan celebrations into their rituals to ease the spread of their new religion.
The ancient Maya and the people of Mesoamerica celebrated their dead for a whole month, and not how we do it today for just a day. This was during the month of Xocotlhuetzi. What exactly they did during that month? We don’t entirely know, probably dance, eat? What was likely is that just as we do today, they would feed their dead to help them in their journey on the afterlife.
Feliz Día de Muertos.
