Their close relation with Itzamna is evidenced, not only in the fragmentary myth preserved by Hernandez, but quite amply in the descriptions of the rites at the close of each year and in the various festivals during the year, as narrated by Bishop Landa.  Thus at the termination of the year, along with the sacrifices to the Bacab of the year were others to Itzamna, either under his surname Canil, which has various meanings,[1] or as Kinich-ahau, Lord of the Eye of the Day,[2] or Yax-coc-ahmut, the first to know and hear of events,[3] or finally as Uac-metun-ahau, Lord of the Wheel of the Months.[4]

[Footnote 1:  Can, of which the “determinative” form is canil, may mean a serpent, or the yellow one, or the strong one, or he who gives gifts, or the converser.]

[Footnote 2:  Kin, the day; ich, eye; ahau, lord.]

[Footnote 3:  Yax, first; coc, which means literally deaf, and hence to listen attentively (whence the name Cocomes, for the ancient royal family of Chichen Itza, an appellation correctly translated “escuchadores”) and ah-mut, master of the news, mut meaning news, good or bad.]

[Footnote 4:  Uac, the months, is a rare and now obsolete form of the plural of u, month, “Uac, i.e. u, por meses y habla de tiempo pasado.” Diccionario Maya-Espanol del Convento de Motul, MS. Metun (Landa, mitun) is from met, a wheel.  The calendars, both in Yucatan and Mexico, were represented as a wheel.]

The word bacab means “erected,” “set up."[1] It was applied to the Bacabs because they were imagined to be enormous giants, standing like pillars at the four corners of the earth, supporting the heavens.  In this sense they were also called chac, the giants, as the rain senders.  They were also the gods of fertility and abundance, who watered the crops, and on whose favor depended the return of the harvests.  They presided over the streams and wells, and were the divinities whose might is manifested in the thunder and lightning, gods of the storms, as well as of the gentle showers.[2] The festival to these gods of the harvest was in the month Mac, which occurred in the early spring.  In this ceremony, Itzamna was also worshiped as the leader of the Bacabs, and an important rite called “the extinction of the fire” was performed.  “The object of these sacrifices and this festival,” writes Bishop Landa, “was to secure an abundance of water for their crops."[3]

[Footnote 1:  The Diccionario Maya del Convento de Motul, MS., the only dictionary in which I find the exact word, translates bacab by “representante, juglar, bufon.”  This is no doubt a late meaning taken from the scenic representations of the supposed doings of the gods in the ritual ceremonies.  The proper form of the word is uacab or vacab, which the dictionary mentioned renders “cosa que esta en pie o enhiesta delante de otra.”  The change from the initial v to b is quite common, as may be seen by comparing the two letters in Pio Perez’s Diccionario de la Lengua Maya, e.g. balak, the revolution of a wheel, from ualak, to turn, to revolve.]