Festividades prehispánicas Nahuas

This thesis arises from the interest to know the meaning of the Nahuatl pre-Hispanic festivities, for that reason we can know the Nahuatl ceremonies and, at the same time we can know the principle of their duality. The Central Mexican festivals of the solar year are described with considerable detail in XVIth century sources. Until know, the rituals have always been interpreted according to their position in the solar year at the time they were first desctibed to the Spaniards. The cultural legacy expressed in manuscripts and testimonies of New Spain allowed us to have a panoramic view of the Mesoamerican world. According to ancient testimonies, the Aztecs made festivities practices closely linked to the agricultural cycle through representations in which live action exceeded the functional character of other plays, such as that of the West. Such festivals with agricultural rites have been interpreted as sowing or harvest festivals on the sole ground that in the 16th century they more or less coincided with those seasonal events. These rites demonstrations are written in the Roman transcription as taught by the Franciscans. From a date on one of the manuscripts, it is evident that in their present written form they date from a period shortly after the fall of the Aztec empire. Thus, in this paper, three pre-Hispanic festivals are analyzed. In chronological order are: a) Toxcatl was dedicated to Tezcatlipoca. b) Tecuilhuitontli was dedicated to Huixtocíhuatl. c) Toxiuh-molpilia was dedicated to Xiuhtecuhtli. In this way, the pre-Hispanic festive elements of the Nahuatl people are analyzed, how the festivities were manifested in their cultural environment, what was the sacred dimension of the ceremonies, their pre-Hispanic characteristics, their differences and similarities, and the principle of duality in the festivities.