Religion in Honduras

The pre-Hispanic peoples that lived in actual Honduras were primarily polytheistic Maya, Lencan indigenous religion, and other native groups.

It was practiced in some parts of Central and South America, and it was based on polytheistic beliefs and had to do with a big number of rituals with occasional animals and maybe even human sacrifices.

[citation needed] The second Roman Catholic Mass celebrated in the continental New World was on August 13, 1502, in Punta Caxinas, two weeks after the so-called "discovery" of Honduras by Christopher Columbus.

In recent years, the principal religious groups are Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Jehovah's Witness, Mennonite, approximately 300 evangelical Protestant groups, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and well as communities of Muslims, Jews and Baha'is.

The National Congress of Honduras has the power to legally recognize religious groups, which confers to them tax-exempt status and other privileges.

The government also frequently includes Catholic or Protestant prayers as part of official events and ceremonies, which has been criticized by representatives of other religious groups.

[7] The first presecence of Roman Catholicism in Honduras dates from 1502, when the first arrival of Spanish explorers set foot and celebrated the first Catholic mass in continental soil.

In the year 2000, 23% of the country's population were considered Protestant Christians; today, the latest data from the Government's Directorate of Census and Statistics establishes that evangelical Christianity amounted to 43% of the population of 9, 368,926 inhabitants, another curious fact is that the largest number of Churches are not affiliated with any of the large organizations with legal personality, such as the Evangelical Confraternity of Honduras (CEH) which brings together around 22,000 churches.

With the liberal reform, Jewish migrants from the Russian Empire arrived, many of them left descendants in Honduras, currently there are synagogues in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and in Comayagua, the largest branch being Orthodox Judaism.

The Bahai faith in Honduras arrived in the mid-19th century, with Persian migrants escaping from the Pahlavi Iran and then with their flight after the Islamic revolution.

[10] Buddhism in Honduras has always been a very minority although not absent, it is believed that the first Buddhists in the country were Chinese immigrants, although currently the majority do not practice it.