Copan
...ourtyard. One structure serves as the bedroom; another is the kitchen; a third serves as a storage room for maize, beans, and other goods; and a fourth houses a shrine. Atop the shrine is a cross, but even this quintessential Christian symbol has pre-Columbian counterparts in the art, writing, and cosmology of the ancient Maya. Incense is burned on the altar in ceramic censers not unlike those found with the ancient altars and shrines. Other aspects of traditional culture include beliefs in spirits that reside in the mountains and streams, even in the ruins of the dynastic center of the Copán Acropolis. Some of these spirits, which bear Maya and Nahuatl (Aztec) names, can be recognized in ceramic and stone sculptures recovered in the archeological excavations. As in more traditional Maya communities elsewhere, the people of Copán take these supernatural and ancestral spirits very seriously. They sacrifice chickens at house dedication ceremonies and when they plant their fields of corn, beans, and squash each May. On May 3, the Day of the Cross, a superficially Catholic procession goes up to a concrete cross on the top of the nearest high mountain, in hopes that the devotion will bring the life-giving rains. In years gone by, the more hispanicized, Ladino members of the community ridiculed the traditional beliefs and lifeways of the more humble, Indian segments of the population who lived in the rural areas. This is beginning to change, as the work in the ruins and at the sculpture museum have shown the breath-taking works of art and architecture left by the ancient inhabitants of the Copán Valley. Travel Information for Potential Pilgrims to Copán The Classic Maya ruins of Copán are nestled in a fertile mountain valley in western Honduras. As in ancient times, farming has eliminated most of the forest in the area surrounding the civic-ceremonial center, but the Archaeological Park protects a large forest. The nature trail running through part of the forest is greatly prized by botanists and birders a...