Chocolate as a Religion

First, we will look at  origin stories,  folklore and mythology surrounding chocolate and its importance to the gods, goddesses and the creation of human life for the Mayan people.

When looking at the origins of Mayan society, some sources point to the myth of Ixcocoa: the Mayan chocolate goddess. Ixcocoa was an ancient fertility goddess, an earth goddess and a matriarchal head in a society where feeding everyone was a woman’s job. (PMM Artists, NP) It is said that there were four big floods, previous attempts of the gods to start a civilization that were immediately wiped out by the cataclysmic events of space debris. (HOP Podcast, NP) After this the gods were pretty exhausted; they had almost given up hope, all the people were starving to death. Then came a young pregnant woman who wanted to prove herself to her late husband’s grandmother goddess, Ixmucane. Ixmucane gave the girl a net and said, “bring this back to me full of food.” So, she headed to a field and came across only one ear of corn.

“Dropping to her knees in despair, she called on the goddesses for help.

Ixcanil, Goddess of Seed, hear me.

Ixtoq, Goddess of Rain, help me.

Ixcacau, Goddess of Chocolate, see my tears

and come to my aid.

The three goddesses came quickly to her rescue.”

(PMM Artists, NP) (Prayer from Mayan Legend to promote good harvest)

 Ixcacao (Ixcacau) taught her how to plant seeds and stayed with the girl until the field was overflowing with harvest. The girl was then able to return to her grandmother and feed all the people in the civilization. (PMM Artists, NP) Ixcocoa is thanked for saving the starving people.

Another notable character is Ek Chuah, Mayan god of cocoa and the “principal Mayan god of merchants” (ek means “star” and chuah means “black” in Yucatec Maya. (Vallarta Factory, NP, 2013). "The Maya held a yearly festival to honor the cacao god Ek Chuah, which included several offerings and rituals to him; chocolate beverages, blood, dancing and other gifts such as the sacrifice of cacao-colored dogs and feathers, incense and cacao seeds." (Rissolo per. Comm. 2008, via St Jean, NP)

The Mayan Popol Vuh or “Book of Counsel” also mentions the importance of chocolate. The Popol Vuh is one of the few surviving written texts that explains Mayan history and in it they talk about the Maize god. This god is credited for maintaining the lifecycle of humans as it mimics the life and death of corn. However, when looking at ancient pottery, it can be seen that the humans, maize and often cocoa exchanged forms. This vase shows the head of the Maize god suspended on a cocoa tree. (Martin and McNeil, NP, 2006)

Next we will look at four elements of human life: Birth, Soul, Blood and Death and how they were celebrated using cocoa and chocolate.

The Mayan people used to baptize their young in concoctions made of water, different flowers, and “cocoa pounded and dissolved in virgin water.” (Coe, p 60) Although the Mayan were a pagan society, this was a baptismal right for boys and girls to allow them to enter the faith. Coe describes the scene, “The children were gathered together inside a cord held by four elderly men representing the Chacs (rain gods) each standing in a corner of the room. The noble who was giving the ceremony took a bone and wet it” in the aforementioned vessel. (Coe, p 60) This bone was “used to anoint the heads, feet, hands and faces of the children.” (Rissolo per comm. 2005 via St. Jean, NP).

Along with being a tasty drink, chocolate was seen as a life giving and ancient medicinal food. It was thought that the drink made from cocoa was therefore good for the soul and was thought to promote long life. “Hernan Cortez wrote to King Carlos I of Spain of “xocoatl,” (ancient Mesoamerican spelling of chocolate) a drink that “builds up resistance and fights fatigue.” (Garthwaite, NP) While Cortez and his Spanish battalion come into contact with chocolate later, in the Aztec era, it can be inferred that these ideas had been established long before he announced them. This was just a European getting credit for something the indigenous people already knew. As human sacrifice was popular in ancient Maya, there are also many ties to the souls of the sacrificed and chocolate. “Chocolate was seen as a life-giving force that empowered human blood. Its consumption was therefore a kind of sacrament, which gave life to the devout consumer.” (Redlands Daily Facts, NP, 2016) Chocolate was given to the person to be sacrificed in order to imbue them with holiness, life, and allow them to withstand the pain as they passed into the underworld.

Chocolate also touched the soul as it represented familial ties and coexistence. “Cacao figured into pre-modern Maya society as a sacred food, sign of prestige, social centerpiece, and cultural touchstone. To this day, people in the area around the Yucatan peninsula grow chocolate as a family tradition, social and cultural practice. (Garthwaite, NP) “Like coffee in the Arab world, or beer in northern and Eastern Europe, it's not only something that's good, but part of their identity.” (Anthropologist Palka, via Garthwaite, NP, 2015)

As briefly mentioned before, blood and chocolate had extremely important religious connotations. They were both considered sacred and were thus regularly offered during ritual practices. (St Jean, 2018) Coincidentally the Mayan people were also big fans of human sacrifice as a way to appease and give thanks to their many gods thus there was no shortage of blood supply. They were known for kidnapping people from neighboring tribes or prisoners of war and using them as sacrifice, feeding them a drink of blood and chocolate to give the captive strength. (St. Jean, NP, 2018) A drink of a mix of blood and chocolate was used for many rituals including the yearly festival honoring Ek Chuah. In a later narrative from Aztec history, a similar festival was held to honor the gods and the year’s harvest in the capital city of Tenochtitlan that included the sacrifice of a warrior captured from an enemy group during battle. “For forty days he was dressed up in the colorful feathers and jewels of the god Quetzalcoatl and ordered to dance for the appeasement of the god of war and the sun; Huitzilopochtli, all the while being treated like a god, but being caged at night. If he appeared agitated or nervous due to his impending doom, the captive would be fed a relaxing drink. He consumed a thick reddish liquid which would enable him to put his fears of eminent death aside and continue to entertain the god. The drink was an intoxicating chocolate blend with the color of blood. His dancing and movements seemed to welcome the death to come, as if he was offering himself willingly. Soon after which, his heart was carved out of his body to be offered to the god that would ensure the rising of the morrows sun” (Coe, 1996, p102 and Rissolo per. comm. 2005 via St. Jean, 2018). While this story dates from the Aztec period, it is no doubt the first of its kind.

Blood and chocolate as an offering also came in different forms. In one case priests would “lance their own earlobes or kings would lance their penises with obsidian blades, drizzling their own blood to cover cacao and offering it to the gods whom they were honoring” (Rissolo per. comm. 2005 via St. Jean, 2018).

These, among others, are common stories that demonstrate the importance of cocoa and blood in religious ritual practices. (St. Jean, 2018)

Finally, cocoa was just as important during life as it was in the afterlife. Mayan peoples took this food and drink with them to the death. “In fact, a majority of the pottery assemblages from Maya sites of the Postclassic (prior to the Spanish conquest) era contained vessels used to hold chocolate for the dead to utilize during his/her afterlife.” (St. Jean, NP) For example, during the excavation of a Mayan tomb in northern Guatemala, they found “seven cylindrical containers, including a pot with a stirrup handle and screw-on lid. The notable piece was painted with hieroglyphs reading, “a drinking vessel for witik cacao, for kox cacao,” the still un-deciphered Mayan words which likely denote chocolate flavours” (Coe and Coe 1996, p 46). After undergoing laboratory analysis of the pot’s inner surface, it came back positive for theobromine and caffeine, two components unique to chocolate in ancient Maya. (St. Jean, NP) “All seven containers likely held varieties of the cacao beverage.” (St. Jean, NP) “There are thousands of these cylindrical vessels in collections, and the vast majority say right on them, ‘This is a vessel for chocolate,” (Coe and Coe 1996, p 46). In these same tombs cocoa beans were found surrounding the burial site. They were often made from clay which could’ve been so they would last well into the humans’ afterlife but is more likely a result of the Mesoamericans being talented counterfeiters of the cocoa bean as cocoa beans, in a sense, were equal to money. (Coe, 1996, p50)

Through the integration of chocolate and cocoa into the elements that make up a human’s life, to the countless mentions of cocoa in its relation to the gods involving the creation and prosperity of the Mayan peoples, it can be concluded that chocolatiness was next to godliness. Not only was cocoa a tool to practice a religion but in a sense, a strong component of the ancient Mayan polytheistic religion itself.

Berg, Jennifer. In class lectures. November and December 2019

Coe, Sophie D., and Michael D. Coe. The True History of Chocolate. Thames and Hudson, 1996.

Dept of PMM Artists &. “~Ixcacao~Goddess of Chocolate~ by ★Mystic♥Pagan★©.” ~Ixcacao~Goddess of Chocolate~ by ★Mystic♥Pagan★©, 17 Feb. 2011, 2:01pm, travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/group/bestiarumvocabulum/forum/topics/ixcacaogoddess-of-chocolate.

Garthwaite, Josie. “What We Know About the Earliest History of Chocolate.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 12 Feb. 2015, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/archaeology-chocolate-180954243/.

Human Origin Project Podcast “#10: Mayan Mythology: Art, Relgion, and History w/ Carlotta Giangualano (Part 1) episode 1. Spotify app. 17 June.  www.humanoriginproject.com 

History.com Editors. “History of Chocolate.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 14 Dec. 2017, www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/history-of-chocolate#section_2.

History.com Editors. “Maya.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009,  www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya .

Instructables. “Mayan Chocolate Drink.” Instructables, Instructables, 2 Nov. 2017, www.instructables.com/id/Mayan-Chocolate-Drink/.

Martin, Simon, and Cameron McNeil. “Tales from the Underworld: Cacao in Ancient Maya Religion.” Cacao in Ancient Maya Religion, 2006,  www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/chocolate/cacao-in-ancient-maya-religion .

Metropolis. “Mayan Chocolate Ritual.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Feb. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5i3kTiFenc.

Redlands Daily Facts. “Professing Faith: The Religious History of Chocolate.” Redlands Daily Facts, Redlands Daily Facts, 18 Aug. 2016, www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2016/08/18/professing-faith-the-religious-history-of-chocolate/.

St. Jean, Julie. “Medicinal and Ritualistic Uses for Chocolate in Mesoamerica - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News.” HeritageDaily, 7 Feb. 2017, www.heritagedaily.com/2018/02/medicinal-and-ritualistic-uses-for-chocolate-in-mesoamerica-2/98809.

Strivelli, Ginger. “IxCacao - The Mayan Goddess of Chocolate.” IxCacao - The Mayan Goddess of Chocolate, www.angelfire.com/nc2/cybertemples/Ixcacao.html.

Student. “Cacao in Mayan Burial Rites.” Chocolate Class, 20 Feb. 2015, chocolateclass.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/cacao-in-mayan-burial-rites/.

Vallarta Factory. “The Legend behind Chocolate – Vallarta Factory.” Vallarta Factory Vallarta Cigar Factory Vallarta Chocolate Factory Vallarta Coffee Roasters, 5 July 2013, www.vallartafactory.com/en/chocolate-origins-vallarta-chocolate-factory/.