Lenca

The Lenca religion belonged to the people of central and southeastern Honduras and eastern El Salvador. Little of its mythology survived the Spanish conquest and conversion to Catholicism.

Lying within the Mesoamerican sphere, the Lenca shared many practices with their neighbours, including animal sacrifices offered for good harvests, fair weather or victory in war, and a version of the 365-day calendar. Women were active in Lenca shamanism, and the priestly caste may have included many of them.

Rites were held to thank the goddess Ilangipuca and the maize, and spirits who brought rain, wind and fertility, or who guarded rivers and forests, were honoured. In the guancasco ceremony the Lenca lordships agreed truces at set times of the year. Resistance to the Spanish was led by the Lenca ruler Lempira, who died in 1537.