Binding of the Years (new fire ceremony)
New fire ceremony : An Aztec ceremony held every 52 years to ensure that the Sun would rise for another 52 years and that the world would be safe; also known as the Binding of the Years. The ceremony was held when the 260-day sacred and 365-day solar calendars ended on the same day and coincided with the beginning of the dry season and when the constellation Pleiades began to rise. In preparation, houses were cleaned, pots were smashed, and all fires were put out. Priests and other religious officials waited on a mountaintop near the Aztec capital of TenochtitlĂĄn and watched the sky.
At midnight, if the path of the Pleiadesâwhich the Aztec called Tianquiztli (Market)âwas directly overhead, a new fire was built in the chest of someone who had been sacrificed and whose heart had been removed and offered to the gods. A runner then lit a torch with the new fire and brought it to all the temples. Then each household received new fire from these temples. If the priests could not build a new fire on the mountain, the Aztec believed, the Sun would not rise, and in the darkness, the much-feared star Demons, the TziTzimimE, would come down to Earth to eat all humans.
The New Fire Ceremony included a bird dance called voladores (fliers). A high pole stood in the center of a plaza. One dancer sat on top of the pole while four others, tied to the pole with long ropes attached to their waists, âflewâ around the pole with their heads down and arms out wide. The dancers dressed in costumes that represented birds of the Sunâeagles and macaws. Each of the four dancers attempted to fly around the pole 13 times to represent the 52 years.
If they were successful, the Aztec believed that the Sun would continue to shine. A version of voladores is still performed in parts of Mexico and Guatemala. Four dancers start from a platform at the top of the pole. When they launch themselves off the platform they try to circle the pole 13 times before landing on their feet on the ground.
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SOURCE:
South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z – by Ann Bingham (Author) and Jeremy Roberts (Author)