Civic and religious festivals in the mayan society were celebrated with rituals of

The Mayan celebrations involved rituals of bloodletting of choice animals as well as human sacrifice. where people would be killed by having their heart ripped out from the chest.
This was done to appease the gods and it was done in every celebration of every calendar be it political or religious. The most sacred was the tongue and the ear, they pierced the ear to hear from the Gods and cut the tongue to enable them to speak what they heard from Gods.