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Aztecs Festivals

  • Date Submitted: 03/19/2013 07:05 PM
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The one I know is the "Origins of the Day of the Dead".

The ancient Aztec Day or Days of the Dead was the target of systematic attempts at assimilation by the Christian conquerors of Latin America. However, unlike the Celtic festival Samhain, the Day of the Dead was more successful in resisting these efforts at incorporation.
The precise origins of "Los Dias de los Muertos" are lost in the shadows of prehistory. Possibly it goes back to the Olmecs, a civilization of south-central Mexico but dominant throughout the region from 1200 to 400 BC. The Olmecs are the progenitors of many Mesoamerican or Middle-American cultures, like the Aztec, Maya, Toltecs, and Zapotec, Mixtec, etc.
We can more clearly trace the festival to the Aztecs, who governed the region from the 14th to the 16th century. They called themselves Mexicas (hence "Mexico"). They commemorated the dead for the entire month of Miccailhuitontli (end of July - beginning of August), which was presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the Lady of the Dead, and Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. It was a joyous occasion, much like it is now.

Aztec Rain Festival Celebration
Celebrated 3 times a year.

Much of Mexico was under Aztec rulership for about 100 years up until the time when the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez and his soldiers invaded the territory in 1521. Cortez and his men observed various festivals held in honour of the god of rain and lightning, Tlaloc.

The Aztecs celebrated the first rain festival at the beginning of the agricultural year in February, in the course of which a priest or shaman carried out a number of rituals to encourage rain-fall .

The second rain festival was offered to Tlaloc and other rain gods in March, once flowers had begun to bloom, as these signified the arrivals of the first new life from the earth.

A third Aztec rain festival was celebrated in autumn in order to encourage rain-fall. At the third rain festival, Aztec people formed shapes of small...

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