Maya Harvest Festivals and the Book of Mormon: Annual FARMS Lecture

Authors

Allen J. Christenson

Abstract

Christenson, in the annual FARMS lecture deliverd on 27 February 1991, examined the Maya New Year's harvest festival, perhaps the most important public festival of the year. The festival coincided with the main corn harvest in mid-November and served as the New Year's Day of the solar calendar, when kingship was renewed. Christenson gave particular attention to the symbolic treatments of the evil god Mam; the ritual descent of the king, as representative of the god of life and resurrection, into the underworld; the king's ritual conflict with and defeat of the lords of the underworld (and of death); and the king's triumphat return or resurrection. The Maya used the image of the tree of life in connection with the atonement and resurrection.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Christenson, Allen J. (1991) "Maya Harvest Festivals and the Book of Mormon: Annual FARMS Lecture," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: Vol. 3: No. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol3/iss1/2