Maya pilgrimage
Pilgrimage is the travel from one's home to a sacred place of importance within one's faith. The journey itself holds a spiritual significance for the traveler because by participating in this ritual, they renew their faith and/or try to bring about a practical result. In the Maya faith, the believers may make a pilgrimage at any time of the year and to multiple places. Pilgrimages create networks that connect people and places over long distances, so as to transcend the limits of the local community as well as time. Maya pilgrimage displays many specific attributes unique to their culture even though they have been heavily influenced by the Catholic faith since the 15th century. In spite of that, they continue to make their pilgrimage to local shrine sites which are distinctly Maya. These ancient sites are used to communicate to deities or spirits and may be used to appeal to them for help. Though the images on these shrines may now represent Christian saints, aspects of the ancient Maya tradition still exists. The following will describe the fundamentals and purpose of Maya pilgrimage as well as the influence Christianity had on it. Ritual location To understand pilgrimage we must explore the locations where the Maya traveled. The natural places that attracted importance in Mesoamerican cultures were mountains, cliffs, boulders, caves, ruins, bodies of water, and islands. These places were usually isolated and remote so the Maya made journeys to visit them. Around 1500, Chichen Itza used to attract pilgrims from all the surrounding kingdoms to its large cenote; other pilgrims visited local shrines, such as those of Ix Chel and other goddesses on the islands off Yucatán's east coast. The Maya usually made shrines at these locations because they believed that the geographical significance created an easier place to communicate with spirits. Each location had one deity associated with it though the Maya could pray to any god they needed. For example, the "gremio" pilgrimage is held annually before each year's rainy season to appeal to the gods for a good season. Each day is dedicated to a different rain god and a different world direction. These ritual locales were identified archaeologically by finding the usual trappings associated with ritual. These included terraces, platforms, shrines, altars, incense, offerings, burials, and rock art. These items were created by the pilgrims to try to communicate with or to appease the gods or spirits in the area. Along with these certain geographical features, the site of the shrine often was a sacred place in which an apparition has appeared, inanimate objects were seen to have come to life, or a miracle has occurred. Nowadays, pilgrimages often involve reciprocal visits of the village saints (as represented by their statues), but also visits to farther-removed sanctuaries, as exemplified by the Q'eqchi' pilgrimages to their thirteen sacred mountains. Reasons for pilgrimage The purpose of these travels may be common place or they may have much spiritual meaning to the traveler. To the Maya, pilgrimage is a