Mesoamerican creation myths are the collection of creation myths attributed to, or documented for, the various cultures and civilizations of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.
The polytheistic Maya gods included Kukulkán (also known by the K'iche' name Gucumatz and the Aztec name Quetzalcoatl) and Tepeu. The two were referred to as the Creators, the Forefathers or the Makers. According to the story, the two gods decided to preserve their legacy by creating an Earth-bound species looking like them. The first attempt was man made from mud, but Tepeu and Kukulkán found that the mud crumbled. The two gods summoned the other gods, and together they decided to make man from wood. However, since these men had no soul and soon lost loyalty to the creators, the gods destroyed them by rain. Finally, man was constructed from maize, the Mayans staple and sacred food.
The Maya calendar is a complex system of ceremonial and civil days and months. It is a set of distinct calendars and almanacs used to determine the ceremonial and civil day, what god ruled that day, and how well the crops might grow for the year. This complex calendar did not originate with the Maya. The earliest known calendar inscriptions are Olmec. Some form of the calendar was used by all of the Mesoamerican cultures. The deity Itzamna is credited to being the creator of the calendar along with creating writing.
The ceremonial calendar had 260 days and was the most widely used calendar in Mesoamerica. It is the oldest calendar and is still used today by people living in Guatemala. This ceremonial calendar is called the Tzolk'in by scholars today. The Tzolk'in was combined with a vague solar year of 365 days. This calendar is called the Haab'. The two together form a synchronized cycle of 18,980 days or 51.9641 solar years. This is called the Calendar Round.
Since the Calendar Round repeated about every 52 years, another calendar called the Long Count was use to specify when a date occurred in a vast empire of time. The Long Count was based on the number of days elapsed since a mythical starting point. It can be used to specify any date far into the past or future. It used a modified base-20 system.
The Maya also recorded lunar cycles and the heliacal risings of Venus There were other calendars such as a nine day cycle of the nine Lords of the Night, an 819 day associated with the four directions.
 | This mythology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
