Ritual of the Bacabs

The Ritual of the Bacabs is a Mayan document containing information on religious symbolism and medical incantations. The Bacabs themselves were four gods, possibly brothers or manifestations of a single deity, who supported the sky from the four cardinal directions in Mayan mythology. Each Bacab presided over one year in a four-year cycle, with the Muluc year considered the greatest.12

The Maya civilization, located in Mesoamerica, developed advanced agriculture and a complex system of thought based on a calendar that intermeshed ritual and solar cycles. Their religious life was deeply connected to this calendar, featuring a pantheon of deities and a layered cosmology of heavens and underworlds. The Ritual of the Bacabs is one of the sources, alongside hieroglyphic texts and early Spanish accounts, that provides insight into Maya beliefs and practices.1