Wealthy or royal families hosted feasts for the purpose of gaining loyalty and a strong image that would help them politically or socially in the future.
[2] The private religious section was focused on gods, family, and ancestor worship while the public festival was often political or social.
[3] Public feasting in Late Classic Maya society included the community as a whole, but still celebrated the elites and royals.
Each family makes much food to create a giant festival for the community which often include markets, bullfights, fireworks, dancing, and obviously drinking and eating.
On the first day, members of the community who ritual specialists construct an altar near the plaza where the ceremony will take place.
After all of the very religious activities take place, the public festival is held and is meant to be a time for friends, family and eating.
The Mayas had a strong belief in animatism and LeCount thinks that they may have believed that when Mayan cooks prepared the feasts with maize and ka’kaw, that they were animated by the supernatural.
[5] Common household ruins show less evidence of serving bowls and vases and LeCount suggests that they may have used small gourds to offer foods to the gods.
Modern Day Mayan officials or elite consume chocolate drinks in private rituals to form social and political relationships.
The feasts included activities such as gift exchanges, human sacrifices, incense burning, speeches, plays, and of course eating and drinking.
Royal and noble houses entertained and hosted feasts at scheduled times such as to distribute foods and money to the kingdom's staff and administrative workers.
The dishes and vessels that the food was served in showed the status of the elite and was very important to the power and competition of the host.
Feasts held by royalty or nobles included high quality foods to emphasis their social status.
[7] Pulque, a fermented drink that is made from sap of the maguey plant was consumed often at Aztec rituals and feasts, but usually only at night.
Pulque was served in vessels that were decorated with symbols, such as half suns, skulls and cross bones, which represented night, disorder, and destruction.