Author: AR3
The New Fire Ceremony was a ritual performed by the Mexicas. According to several archaeological interpretations, it was also practiced by other peoples of central Mexico during the Postclassic period. The new fire was lit on the Huizachtepetl, today the Cerro de la Estrella, only at this sacred place, when the Pleiades aligned, at the binding of the years every 52 years. However, according to some researchers’ interpretations of the Borgia, Vindobonensis, Laud and Nuttall codices, it was renewed every year.
The importance of the ceremony lies in the fact that it represented the search for balance and order in the universe; the people felt in harmony with it and worked together to maintain that order. In their worldview, the creation of the Sun was represented through this ceremony: renewing the commitment at the end of an era kept the Sun, and therefore time, moving, and people reaffirmed the pact the gods had made to give life to this world. Astronomical knowledge was intrinsic to it, based on the position opposite the Sun’s first passage through the zenith.
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