The Obituary
Kukulkan was the Maya feathered serpent god of wind, rain, and learning, cognate with the central Mexican Quetzalcoatl, his cult centered at Chichen Itza. His great pyramid, El Castillo, was built so that at the spring and autumn equinoxes the descending sunlight forms a serpent of light gliding down its northern stairway. Worshipped across the Yucatan, his cult was suppressed during the protracted Spanish conquest of the peninsula in the 16th and 17th centuries, replaced by Catholicism.
Worth remembering
- At each equinox the afternoon sun casts a serpent of light and shadow descending the steps of El Castillo at Chichen Itza.
- He was a god of wind, rain, and learning, his cult spread by the Itza and Toltec influence in the Yucatan.
Sources
- Kukulkan was the Maya feathered serpent deity, cognate with Quetzalcoatl Wikipedia
- At the equinoxes, light and shadow form a serpent on El Castillo at Chichen Itza World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.