Mexico’s Purepecha Indigenous group welcomes the New Year with ancient ‘New Fire’ ceremony

By EDUARDO VERDUGO
Associated Press

OCUMICHO, Mexico (AP) — Guided by their ancestral lunar calendar, members of Mexico’s Purepecha Indigenous group celebrated their own New Year’s Eve. It was a little different than the West’s traditional New Year. The Purepechas, who live in the western state of Michoacan, preserve the pre-Hispanic belief in the “New Fire” ceremony. Because their lunar calendar leaves an orphan day that belongs to no month, that day is viewed as a time for both mourning and renewal. A symbolic fire is extinguished, and for a day, no fire is allowed. Then a new fire is lit and not allowed to go out until the next year.