Question for August 2017

Without a doubt, the one thing all Mexica (Aztec) people were afraid of was the end of their world - what they called the Fifth Sun. They believed that our world has ‘come and gone’ (been created and then destroyed) four times in the past and that we’re now living (so were they) in the fifth and last Sun. Each previous Sun had been destroyed because it had got badly out of balance.
Panel of Experts member Professor James Maffie adds: ‘Their greatest fear was that the 5th Era and all of its inhabitants (including human beings) along with it would succumb to imbalance and as a consequence, complete and total disintegration and destruction.’
According to their ancient calendar systems, each Sun consisted of many cycles of 52 years (a bit like our ‘century’) and the world can only come to an end after completing a 52-year cycle. They were always terrified that the world might end during the last (five) days of one of these 52-year cycles (which they called a ‘bundle of reeds’). That’s why, every 52 years, they organised an enormous ‘New Fire Ceremony’ to celebrate the start of a new 52-year cycle. It was the biggest festival in the Aztecs’ calendar. You can learn more about it from the link below...

A Mexican mural painter’s version of the Aztec New Fire Ceremony