Calendar Round
Since both the Tonalpohualli- and the Xihuitl calendar constantly repeat themselves, approximately every 52 years they reach a common end, and a new Calendar Round begins. This 52-year cycle was the most important for most Mesoamericans, with the apparent exception of the Maya elite until the end of the Classic Era, who gave equal importance to the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. According to their mythology, at the end of one of these 52-year cycles the world would be destroyed by the gods, like it had happened four times previously. While waiting for this to happen, all fire was extinguished, house utensils were destroyed in the houses to symbolize new beginnings, people fasted and rituals were carried out. This was known as the New Fire Ceremony. When dawn broke the first day of the new cycle, torches were lit in the temples and brought out to light new fires everywhere, and ceremonies of thanksgiving were performed.
Read more about this topic: Mesoamerican Calendars
Famous quotes containing the word calendar:
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)