The Holiday season to majority of Americans means Christmas and Thanksgiving but what about other cultural celebrations that happen around this time of year? The one celebration we are going to look at today is Ancient Aztec Celebration, I personally had not heard of this until my boss shared a Facebook post about it with me.
In Mexico, Christmas starts on December 16th and last nine days. This celebration is known as Posadas. “These celebrations commemorate Mary and Joseph’s pilgrimage before Jesus’ birth, but it originated in Aztec traditions.” During these nine days people reenact this certain period in Christian history. It is usually filled with delicious food, amazing seasonal beverages, a traditional Mexican pinata, candles, candy and the religious rites announcing the upcoming Christmas.
Before Posadas, there was the Panquetzaliztli which was the celebration of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and sun. Unlike Posadas this celebration lasted twenty days. The main affair went from December 17th to the 26th. Within Aztec culture it was believed that Hitzilopochtli died every year and was reborn on the winter solstice, meaning that the Panquetzaliztli was the celebration of the entire process.
Over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas our blog post is going to focus on different holiday season celebrations from around the world. Share below what your family does when celebrating the holiday season as we would love to hear.
