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Grandma sleeps under your bed
Under the bed
Having grandma under the bed was a comfort. Ancestors never really leave, and they want to come home, so the family kept them there. European ideas about ghosts, remnants, vampires, and zombies have no counterpart in Maya belief.
The world below
The Maya underworld, Xibalba, is not a punishment. The dead there are doing fine: grandparents and everyone else live in a village that looks like the one they grew up in, farming and keeping house. When the sun sets on the living, it rises on them, and when it sets there, it rises here.
Royal ascent
Royal bloodlines were different. Their dead ascended into the heavens, where they could speak to the gods, while everyone else's souls stayed in the lower world.
Why did the Maya bury under floors?
Archaeologists find burials beneath house floors and inside platforms across the Maya region, from early villages to later cities. The dead were often buried with pottery, shell, and jade beads, and some had a jade bead placed in the mouth. Keeping family members under the floor kept ancestors in the household. Later generations sometimes dug up or reopened the graves to make offerings.
How do the Maya remember their dead today?
In the Yucatan, families hold Hanal Pixan, which means food of the souls in Yucatec Maya. It falls in early November and overlaps with the Catholic days for the dead. Families build altars with food, candles, and flowers for the returning souls. The festival blends Maya practice with Catholic custom.
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