Ritual

Winter solstice on the Cerro de la Estrella

Fire, copal and dance to welcome the shortest sun of the year on top of a hill in Mexico City.

October 29, 2026

Cerro de la Estrella, Ciudad de México

People gathered before dawn around an offering of flowers and a fire, with the city lights in the background — Offering and fire before the solstice dawn.

Ceremony participants amid copal smoke, backlit by the rising sun — Copal smoke against the light.

Dancers and banners backlit at sunrise — The dance goes on with the sun already high.

A woman wrapped in a rebozo watches the sunrise over the valley — First light over the valley.

An older woman beside a smoking incense burner at dawn — Copal at dawn.

A participant with a banner at the edge of the hill under a cloudy sky — A banner receives the first sun.

Every 21 December, before dawn, groups of dancers and families climb the Cerro de la Estrella, in Iztapalapa, to wait for the sun. They light a fire, offer flowers and copal and dance until the light crosses the valley.

The hill, called Huizachtépetl in Nahuatl, was where the Mexica held the New Fire ceremony at the close of each 52-year cycle.

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