| It is notable that the inhabitants of the town of Chalcatzingo annually take offerings of food and gifts to the cross and metallic box at the top of the "sacred mountain", still associated with rain, wind, earth, and most of all, with fertility. This ceremony takes place on May 3, just before the rainy season. It is the day when the Santa Cruz is celebrated in the Christian calendar. This cross could be a symbol of the sacrifice and death of Christ, substituting for the prehispanic sacrifice and ritual to bring rain. One could possible argue that the appearance of the ritual does not correspond to a prehispanic ceremony as much as ritual whose style is more in tune with present era; however there is evident symbiosis in which the elements of nature, the gods of creation, fertility, and maintenance, and the cycle of the stars and constellations mingle with the sacrifice of the Messiah who gave his life on the cross. This rite surely interweaves characteristics of two belief systems of distinct origin into the resultant hybrid beliefs of the hispanic conquest over the Mesoamerican religious structure. |
