You know on national celebrations and incorporation of

[nadinbrzezinski]

native people's to the nation. Watching the celebration in Mexico there were three things that caught my attention:

1.- Native peoples were fully incorporated into the celebration. Imagine a Fourth of July opened with traditional Pre-hispanic ceremonies. Well, here they started yesterday with the ceremony of the new fire. Granted, they did not add a human sacrifice, but the rest was there.

2.- The symbols of the prehispanic culture were fully incorporated into the ceremony. I offer for you the fact that Kukulkan (in the form of a balloon) had a head higher than the bell tower at the Main Cathedral and the main multimedia event had it fly in and out of the Cathedral.

3.- Part of the ceremonies were done fully with volunteers, which meant the incorporation of the common people into this bicentennial.

There were signals given to anybody who gets it... but the process of incorporating all native cultures continues. and probably has accelerated. Hell, twenty years ago I could not imagine this, a ceremony of the New Fire to open the whole thing. And in the US, we need to achieve something similar where Native People's become part and parcel of the nation. Oh and here is another one, the armed forces have opened even front line combat to women. And no, I am not torn on this. Mexico has a long history of women participating in combat... and if you can hack it... by all means.

It's been fun... now to the day of the atonement, speaking off... a multicultural society where even relatively recent immigrants have a full fledged participation.

Oh and for those concerned about things like education, if this continues... Mexico will actually finally fund education in a well done manner. They have twenty five new campuses in the State of Guanajuato... compare that with our CUTS... hell, they do not spend as much as we do in military matters, I guess that might help.

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Are there any groups that still openly worship Kulkulkan...

or is this just a symbol? Does Kulkulkan still have resonance as a religious being.

Yes, I know about the Spanish placing the old precolumiban idols in the walls of Cathedrals behind the alters.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yes, the Maya still do

the religious syncretism is quite impressive, including animal sacrifice with blood offered to all points of the compass, the native american compass.

Other native american cultures have kept many of their gods, and still celebrate their own celebrations, and under the layer of a Christian celebration many a times one can find the prehispanic believes...