User menu
Main menu

Maya Religion - gods

60 second histories

This video covers:  An outline of some of the gods the Ancient Maya worshop and their practice of human sacrifice

We Maya worship nature gods at our shrines and temples. Each god has a good side and an angry side so you have to keep in with them. The most important god is Itzamna, he’s the god of fire. Then there is Kukulcan the serpent god, he looks like a snake and is the god of war and sacrifice. Kukulcan’s main temple is the pyramid temple at Chichen Itza. Another god we have is Bolon Tzacab, the god of storms, and there are so many more, like the god of corn, the god of rain, the god of the earth and so on. We believe that when we die we will pass into a dark underworld where our soul will be tormented by sinister gods until we have passed through to heaven. You can only go straight to heaven if you’ve been sacrificed or have died in childbirth. Human sacrifice is at the centre of our religion, we do this to appease the gods, our human sacrifices are usually slaves, criminals and of course children.
Eras: 
Ancient Maya
Topics: 
Civilizations
Religion
Character: 
Maya warrior
Key words: 
Maya, Ancient Maya, worship, gods, nature gods, shrine, temple, Itzamna, Kukulcan, Chichen Itza, Bolon Tzacab, sacrifice, human sacrifice, underworld, heaven, religion, KS2, key stage 2, key stage 2 history, primary, KS2 videos, KS2 clips, KS2 history, KS2 videos, KS2 history film, KS2 history clip, Maya, Mayan, Ancient Maya, Ancient Mayan, Mexico, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, mesoamerica