Alternatively, they were thrown into the wells later to be drawn up again, and give oracles. Young men and women were lowered into these wells, so as to make them enter the realm of the rain deities. Asking for rain and crops was also the purpose of 16th-century rituals at the cenotes, of Yucatán. It includes four boys (one for each cardinal point) acting and chanting as frogs. According to a Late-Postclassic Yucatec tradition, Chac Xib Chaac (the rain deity of the east) was the title of a king of Chichen Itza, and similar titles were bestowed upon Classic rulers as well (see below).Īmong the rituals for the rain deities, the Yucatec Chʼa Cháak ceremony for asking rain centers on a ceremonial banquet for the rain deities. In the traditional Mayan (and Mesoamerican) community, one of the most important functions was that of rainmaker, which presupposed an intimate acquaintance with (and thus, initiation by) the rain deities, and a knowledge of their places and movements. The rain deities had their human counterparts. The Chorti Maya have preserved important folklore regarding the process of rain-making, which involved rain deities striking rain-carrying snakes with their axes. Ĭontemporary Yucatec Maya farmers distinguish many more aspects of the rainfall and the clouds and personify them as different, hierarchically-ordered rain deities. In 16th-century Yucatán, the directional Chaac of the east was called Chac Xib Chaac 'Red Man Chaac', only the colors being varied for the three other ones. Four Chaacs are based in the cardinal directions and wear the directional colors. Like other Mayan gods, Chaac is both one and manifold. Chaac sculpture at the Mayan Sculpture Museum, Honduras.
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