The Living Tradition of Maya Spiritual Practice

Contemporary Maya communities maintain living spiritual traditions that draw on the deep heritage of Maya religious thought, adapted to and integrated with the Christianity that was imposed through the colonial period.

In communities across the Yucatán, Guatemala, Belize, and the rest of the Maya world, traditional ceremonies, calendrical observances, and healing practices continue to be performed.

Maya daykeepers — ritual specialists who maintain the traditional 260-day calendar and use it to guide ceremonial and divinatory practices — are active in communities throughout the Maya region.

The specific forms of these practices vary by community and region and have been influenced by both the pre-contact tradition and by centuries of colonial contact and cultural mixing.