Author: Tim Gaynor
Publication: Reuters
Date: March 21, 2004
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."