In 1987 the Fifth So Festivall with the aim of being a meeting point for the indigenous peoples of Mexico and celebrating their cultural wealth. The Otomi, Mazahua, Nahua, Matlazinca and Tlahuica peoples participate in it.
This 2024, the Quinto Sol Festival will be celebrated from March 18 to 21, reported Nelly Carrasco, head of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the State of Mexico. In its 37th edition, its headquarters will be the municipalities of Acambay, Tenango del Valle, Rayón and Toluca.
Regarding the content of the festival, Carrasco reported that there would be literary and musical activities, workshops, talks and craft samples. Likewise, the native peoples will have the opportunity to celebrate traditional ceremonies of each of their worldviews associated with the new fire or the flowering of fire, which marks the transition from the season from winter to spring.
Dioniso Fuentes Canales, Nahua chief, thanked the authorities for the facilities for celebrating the festival, which is a fundamental piece of the myth about the origin of the world according to various Mesoamerican peoples. If you want to know the complete program, click here.
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Fifth Sun Festival, what myth is it based on?
At the beginning of time, when nothing was as we know it now, there were the Mexica gods gathered around the sun. Then they decided to make the world and have human beings live in it. At that moment they gave life to a gigantic human being and also created Ocelotonatiuhthe sun made of earth.
Those creatures were 7 meters tall. Their bodies were slow and their movements very clumsy. It is said that they fell very frequently and, since they could no longer get up, they agonized and died.
Therefore, after almost 700 years, the gods decided to destroy him because they realized that, due to his size, he was not a good or intelligent being. In this way, Quetzalcoatl, one of the deities involved, said that that thing was not worthy of the gods so he knocked down the sun.
The sun, since it was made of earth, fell and with it there were numerous earthquakes. Gigantic holes were made that swallowed the humans. No one survived except those who were able to turn into flowers and plants.
A series of attempts that seemed endless
Although the first attempt was a failure, the Mexica gods tried again. Although, this time, they created Ehecatonatiuh, wind sun. Even so, after another –almost– 700 years, they destroyed them again.
Once again they brought down the sun. With this, such strong winds were unleashed that they annihilated all the men as they were thrown against the mountains and trees. However, those who became monkeys and apes were able to survive.
Some time later, when the gods calmed their anger and contempt again, they tried again. This time they created Atonatiuh, water sun. However, after doing so, the deities fought among themselves and ended up overthrowing the third sun.
Then began a long period of storms and rain. The flood lasted forty days and forty nights in which everything was filled with water. This time only those who managed to transform into fish could survive.
Afterwards, the gods made peace and resumed their work. It was like that. with fire, they made Quiauhtonatiuhthat is, the Fifth Sun. However, as if it were a terribly endless cycle, the deities fought again and, once again, caused their creations to become extinct.
The fire of the sun fell on the Earth, volcanoes emerged and all men were burned. Decades and perhaps centuries passed until divine entities set out to recreate man.
However, they no longer had bones to do so, only ashes remained. They tried to give it life with that but it was impossible because the humans came out weak and died very easily.
Then Quetzalcoatl remembered that Mictlantecuhtli had the last existing bone. Without having any other option, the Feathered Serpent decided to descend to the underworld and ask the god of death for that very valuable piece.
Despite Quetzalcoatl's power, the god of the underworld refused. At that moment a terrible fight broke out between the deities and, in the middle of the battle, the bone fell and broke in two.
After reaching an agreement, Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcóatl decided that each would keep a part of the bone.
This is how the Feathered Serpent returned with the other gods and then man emerged as we know him, a man who no longer needs gods to destroy him because, as Nuria told us, he destroys himself.
Rodrigo Osegueda Philosopher by training. Contemplate the soul and imagination of Mexico.