The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Mecca, pilgrimage to S 285

The most remarkable feature of Maya civiliza tion was its elaborate conception of space and time. The Maya divided space into four quadrants sur rounding a center point. The four quadrants rep resented the four cardinal directions. Each direc tion, as well as the center point, was associated with a tree. Each was also associated with a color: blue-green for the center, red for the east, black for the west, white for the north (perhaps better, the zenith), yellow for the south (perhaps better, the nadir). During the day the sun was said to traverse seven (or 13) layers of sky; during the night it tra versed five (or nine) layers of the underworld. The Maya calendar was extremely elaborate. It was based on patterns or “rounds” of recurring series, similar to the days of the week and the months of the year in North America today. One pattern combined a series of 20 names and 13 numbers, for a round of 260 days. A second pat tern contained 18 “months” of 20 days, followed by five extra days, for a round of 365 days. The two patterns ran simultaneously. Once every 52 years the first dates in each of the two rounds would coincide. Scholars call each 52-year period a “calendar round.” The longest running Maya dating system was the Long Count. It began in 3114 B . C . E . It will be completed on December 23, 2012 C . E . In the 16th century, Spain conquered the Maya, as it did the rest of Mesoamerica. But Maya religion did not disappear. It gave a distinctive character to the rituals, festivals, and saints in the religion of the conquerors, R OMAN C ATHOLICISM . Further reading: Davíd Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers (Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1998); Lynn V. Foster, Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World (New York: Facts On File, 2002); Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, trans. Dennis Tedlock, rev. ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).

A Mayan pyramid, the Temple of Inscriptions, in Palenque, Mexico (Getty Images)

the British Isles, May Day was a continuation of Beltane, the pre-Christian Celtic spring festival. Its celebration remained important in rural England into the 19th century. Remnants of the old May Day can still be found in special dances, proces sions, the erecting of maypoles, and the gathering of spring flowers for may-baskets in various places in Britain and North America. Mecca, pilgrimage to One of the “five pillars” of I SLAM . In Arabic, the PILGRIMAGE to Mecca is known as the Hajj. Mecca is the site of the holiest shrine in Islam, the K AABA . The Kaaba is said to have been built by A BRAHAM and his son Ishmael. Before the

May Day The first day of May, traditionally a day of celebrating fertility and the coming of spring. In