Copal smoke rises into the evening air on the plaza of San Sebastián de Analco, atop the remains of an Indigenous settlement that predates modern Guadalajara.
A circle of white-clad danzantes comes to a pause within a ring of white flowers. The rattle of the ayoyotes around their ankles fall silent as the ceremonial leader begins to speak.
At the center of the circle, on a woven petate, stand four dancers beside a tlalmanalli, a ceremonial offering arranged on the earth with symbols of the elements and the season. Each one lifts a bundle of carrizo reeds: 13 reeds in each bundle, four bundles in all — representing the 52 years of a full cycle. One by one, they feed the reeds into the flames of a clay urn.
As the reeds catch fire, the plaza grows quiet. Each person reflects on the cycle that is ending and the one beginning.
“Today we prepare to close a 52-year cycle,” the leader tells the gathering. “We give thanks for what we have experienced, we leave behind what has already happened, and we open the way for what is to come.”
While most people celebrate the New Year on January 1, a different new year is beginning for people reconnecting with ancient traditions. Thursday, March 12 marked the start of Año 1 Conejo (1 Rabbit) — the first year of a new 52-year cycle in what many know as the Aztec calendar.
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