January 1—Mayan Fire Ceremony

What you need:

• Candles in the following colors: red, yellow, green, blue, white, and black
• Herbs: tobacco, rosemary, lavender, cedar, sage, and rose petals
• Incense: copal, myrrh, or any resin-based incense r 2 cups of sugar
  
• 1 chocolate bar per person
• Bells, rattles, drums, and other noisemakers
• A firepot, fireplace, or safe place for an outdoor fire, paper for your intention

The candle colors represent the six directions: north, south, east, west, up, and down (or sky and earth). They also represent the different people of the world.

Gather your friends together at dusk on New Year’s Day and ask them to bring a colored candle (assign them a color), a noisemaker, and an open mind. Ask them also to write out what they want to purge from their life and bring the paper into the circle. The Mayan Fire Ceremony serves to bring positive new influences into our lives and also to dispel what no longer serves for good. This “letting go” can be anything. For me, one year ago, it was cancer, and this year it was too much clutter. For you, it could be an unhealthy relationship, a job that makes you miserable, or a cramped apartment.

Here are the steps to the ritual:

1. Build a fire at 5:00 p.m. and have it burning brightly as your guests arrive. Place a big bowl of herbs, flower petals, and incense near the fire.

2. Create a circle around the fire and ask the eldest in the group to slowly draw a circle of sugar around the fire.

3. When the elder has moved back into place in the circle, each person should light his or her candles from the fire and place it in the sugar circle, creating a mandala.

4. Ask the youngest person to lead the group in this chant:My life is my own

   I must but choose to be better,
   
   Vital breath of life I breathe

   No more pain and strife!

   Wise ones, bring us health and life
   
   Bring us love and luck

   Bring us blessed peace

   On this our New Year’s Day.

   Into the fire, we toss the old

   Into the fire, we see our future

   On this, our New Year’s Day.

   Harm to none and health to all!

Everyone should rattle and drum away, making merry and rousing the good spirits. The spirits of the wise elders will join you.

After the drumming, start around the circle, beginning with the eldest. Allow people to speak about what they want to release from their life, and have them toss their “letting go” paper into the fire. Then the eldest person should lead the group in a prayer for collective hopes for the coming year, and anyone who wants to add something should also speak out wishes for positive change, for themselves and for the world.

Thank the wise elders and ancestors for their wisdom and spiritual aid by throwing some chocolate into the fire. Be sure to keep some for members of the circle to share and enjoy. The Mayans held the belief that a plentitude of offerings to the ancestors would bring more blessings. They also believed that fire ceremonies helped support the planet and all the nations of the word. Gifts to the fire signal to the elders that they can return through the door and to the other world, until you call upon them for help in the future. 

365 Days of Ritual

January

January 1, New Year’s Day, Gantan-sai (Japan)
January 2, Kakosome, the Japanese Day of First Writing: Ancestry Day (Haiti)
January 3, Saint Genevieve Day
January 4, Our Lord of Chalma Day
January 5, Festival of Befana (Italian)
January 6, Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day
January 7, Greek Orthodox Christmas
January 8, Midwife Day
January 9, Feast of the Black Nazarene
January 10, Seven Lucky Gods of Japan
January 11, Carmentalia, Day of Prophecy in Rome
January 12, Seijin no Hi, Coming of Age Day (Japan)
January 13, Glaedelig Jul, Norwegian Twentieth Day
January 14, Feast of the Donkey in Paris
January 15, Martin Luther King’s birthday
January 16, Festival of Ganesha
January 17, San Antonia Abad
January 18, World Religion Day
January 19, Baha’i Feast of Sultan
January 20, Portuguese Breadbasket Festival
January 21, Saint Agnes Day
January 22, Burgundian Winemaker’s Holiday
January 23, Buffalo Dancer’s Holiday
January 24, Bolivian Ekeko Fair for Prosperity
January 25, Robbie Burns Night (Scotland)
January 26, Indian Independence Day
January 27, Mozart’s Birthday
January 28, St. Thomas Aquinas Day
January 29, Martyr’s Day (Nepal)
January 30, Three Bishops Day
January 31, Feast of Hecate (Ancient Rome)

Any discussion of rituals for the month of January must include New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I remember the drama that ensued as people around the globe stood by to witness the sunrise on January 1, 2000, perceived as the beginning of the new millennium. While many other cultures observe their New Year at other times during the year, January 1 has also become a time of celebration, reflection, and an opportunity to embrace change.

For many millennia, indigenous peoples have celebrated their own New Year in unique ways. One common element is the use of fire rituals by North, Central, and South American peoples. The Pilgrims who arrived in what was to become New England observed and documented that the Iroquois and other tribes they encountered had a New Year’s Council Fire, a time when the tribe gathered to review the past year, listen to the elders, and speak their hopes, dreams, and visions of the coming year.

In addition to your personal New Year’s ritual with the significant people in your life, I recommend the Mayan Fire Ceremony as a powerful way to bring positive change of the New Year into your life.

The Mayan Fire Ceremony was considered to open a door or portal into the spirit world that held the promise of receiving the blessings of spirit—love, healing, prosperity, peace, and anything you need for personal transformation. This ritual is also an opportunity to pay respects and make homage to your ancestors and loved ones you have lost. For this reason alone, I suggest enacting the Mayan Fire Ceremony: our culture is losing the important connection to the older people in our lives. Involving them in the rituals, ceremonies, and passages of our lives could heal a cultural rift and bring deep wisdom to all. Mayan shamans could “read” the fire in a divinatory fashion, and I hear that some modern metaphysicians can do the same. If you are fortunate enough to know anyone with such skills, invite them to your fire ceremony to share what they divine from the flames.