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New Fire Ceremony
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Quick Facts
Also called:
The Binding Up of the Years
Related Topics:
ritual
Aztec calendar
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New Fire Ceremony

Aztec ceremony
Also known as: The Binding Up of the Years
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History

New Fire Ceremony, in Aztec religion, ritual celebrated every 52 years when the 260-day ritual and 365-day civil calendars returned to the same positions relative to each other. In preparation, all sacred and domestic fires were allowed to burn out. At the climax of the ceremony, priests ignited a new sacred fire on the breast of a sacrificial victim, from which the rest of the people rekindled their hearth fires; the people then began feasting.