Solar Eclipse: Maya Beliefs and Rituals
The following article is written by Felicita Cantun, a Maya Yucatec community leader from Belize.
What is an Eclipse?
Eclipses are a natural phenomenon when an “obscuring of the light from one celestial body by the passage of another between it and the observer or between it and its source of illumination (Definitions from Oxford Languages)”.
There are two types of eclipse; the lunar (Moon) and the solar (Sun). A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth. However, a long time ago the Maya culture gave different interpretations to eclipses. In fact, the solar eclipse was interpreted as the Sun God expressing his fury or demanding rituals.
Chi’bal K’iin - When the Sun is Eaten
The Maya considered the solar eclipses to be the most feared phenomena because they were related to some negative events. They were feared events viewed and based on the Maya cosmovision as the struggle of the Sun and the Moon, day and night or the good and the bad. This phenomena was seen as a bad omen, but also as a closure and as a sign of renewal.
In the Yucatec Maya culture, the Sun God is ‘K’iinich Ahau and the Goddess of the Moon is Ixchel. The Sun God, also represents the night and the day, the light and darkness - duality. *(For the contemporary Yucatec Maya the Sun God is Yuum k'iin and the Moon Goddess is iX Uj Ahau. The names of deities can change over centuries.)
In the Yucatec Mayan Language, the eclipse is called “Chi’bal K’iin” which translates to “when the Sun is eaten”. It is because the Moon is angry and symbolically, “bites the Sun”. Therefore, a solar eclipse was considered much more dangerous than a lunar eclipse, because with its absence there is a return to darkness and certain diabolical spirits emerge from the interior of the earth to attack human beings.
Help the Sun Wake up from its Slumber
It was believed that certain animals attacked the Sun. There were mythical ants called “xibal” that attacked the Sun to eat it. The only way for people on Earth to help was to make various noises to scare them away. So, children banged cans and men fired their shotguns in the air.
The rituals performed by the Maya during an eclipse were dances at the rhythm of their drums, believing that the noise would help the Sun wake up from its slumber and drive away the conflict between the stars.
Drummer, part of the Belizean Pok ta Pok team. 13th of August, 2023 at Lamanai Archaeological Reserve. © Heritage Education Network Belize
The Eclipse and Pregnant Women
Another belief was that children of pregnant women suffer from malformation if they are directly exposed to the eclipse. It is a belief that still lives among the Maya today. Pregnant women placed a piece of obsidian on their belly or in their mouth, which was believed to help prevent harm to their unborn babies.
How solar eclipses were observed?
The Mayas believed that when looking directly into the solar eclipse, birds would come to poke out their eyes and they would be blind, so the reflection of the Sun in buckets of water was a popular practice to observe these phenomena in the celestial sphere.
The Moon and the Sun are Making Love
“Apart from all the explanations, the part I like best is what my ancestors used to say; that the Moon and the Sun are making love. But they also expressed that the solar eclipse was interpreted as the Sun God expressing his fury or demanding rituals.”
Written by Felicita Cantun