The Mayan codices depict images of gods
and supernatural beings involved in activities that frequently are related to
food, with maize and cacao having the most significance. The Popol Vuh, literally
meaning ‘Book of the People’ is the sacred text of the Mayan k'iches (language) from Guatemala, and is
considered to be the Mayan Bible. Mayan creation and death cult myths are very
much tied to food, and were revered and recorded in iconography in their
codices, star maps, buildings and sculptures.
Historically, we know that in Mayan communities,
events in the lives of people at all levels of society - births, baptisms,
ear-piercing, marriage, pregnancy, death, and other life-stages - required special
dishes for feasts to mark these occasions. Food in ancient Mayan culture was
very much connected to the cycle of life and death - and remains at the centre
of Mayan life today.
Many
of the dishes prepared during Hanal Pixan are described in the Popol Vuh, including mucbilpollo and chilmole, dishes made with poultry. The pre-Columbian versions would
have been made with pavo (turkey),
but now they are generally prepared with chicken, which was introduced by the
Spaniards in the 16th century. Special red tamales chachak wah (masa mixed
with achiote paste) are wrapped and buried
(much like a deceased would be) and baked the pib. In reference to
glyphs from the Mayan codex, the “red tamal”
or “great tamal,” are significant in the Maya ritual ancestor worship. It is traditional
to include three round tamales on household altars to represent women and/or
four rectangular tamales if the deceased is a man. The original numbers are
based pre- Columbian numerology associated with the specific labor of each
gender: the three-stoned hearth for women and four-cornered milpa for men.
For
the ancient and modern Mayan, the dead are never truly gone and remain
connected to us throughout our lifetimes. Offerings of food and drink year
after year are symbolic of the idea that the place of ancestral burial was in
the home, and that the dead continue living with relatives, long after they are
gone from this world.
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