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Mexicans Trek to Pyramids to Mark Equino

Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Sunday, March 21 2004, 19:10:13 (EST)
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Mexicans Trek to Pyramids to Mark Equinox
2 hours, 45 minutes ago

By Tim Gaynor

TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Decked out in eagle feathers, amulets and lucky charms, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans converged on the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan, near Mexico City, on Sunday to tap into what they believe is the site's energy on the spring equinox.

Arriving before dawn, visitors queued in snaking lines to climb the steeply raked steps of the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, in an annual rite marking the first day of spring which is thought to date back to pre-Hispanic times.

Teotihuacan, which lies in a highland valley 30 miles northeast of the capital, was built some 2,000 years ago by a nameless civilization that worshiped a pantheon of deities including a snake god and a thunder god.

Abandoned in the sixth century, the site has become one of Mexico's top tourist attractions and a magnet for indigenous priests and new-age enthusiasts alike, eager to soak up mystic energies they believe are released by the equinox.

Thousands of Mexicans and tourists also flock to the country's principal archeological sites such as Chichen Itza, in the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula, and El Tajin in southeastern Veracruz state on March 21. The fall equinox is not celebrated.

As dawn broke over the top of the 212-foot Pyramid of the Sun, Nahuatl Indian Ricardo Cervantes, 44, burned incense and maize husks, and offered up murmured prayers to the supreme god Ometeotl.

"Today marks the start of a new agricultural cycle and a movement of the cosmos in the old calendar," said Cervantes, who wore obsidian beads. "It's an important day for us."

A FAST GROWING FESTIVAL

Archeologists from Mexico's National History and Anthropology Institute say "massive attendance" at the spring equinox festival -- which marks the sun's return to the northern hemisphere -- began in the late 1980s.

This year, 2,000 police and security guards were on hand at Teotihuacan and along traffic-choked approach roads, as organizers braced to receive between 800,000 and one million visitors.

The festival at the site -- which sprawls over eight square miles of dusty scrub land -- attracts many ordinary Mexicans, who put strong Catholic beliefs to one side for the day.

"We have come here to soak up the energy and reject the bad vibes," said Fernando Yebra, a grandfather dressed in a white tunic and red bandana. "The colors help to maximize the positive energy and ward off the bad."

Standing next to him on the steps leading up to the Pyramid of the Sun, his wife closed her eyes and raised the palms of her hands to face the sun: "We're Catholics, and we're just here for the experience," she says.

Hawkers lining the Avenue of the Dead -- Teotihuacan's broad central thoroughfare -- offering everything from T-shirts and cleansing herbs, to hot tacos and beer, said trade was brisk.

"I've been coming here for 20 years, and the equinox is very good for business, despite the competition," trader Enrique Rosales told Reuters. "By noon there won't even be standing room here."

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