Voladores

Outside the Anthropology museum in Chapultepec park are a group of men called Voladores (Flyers). This is an ancient ritual performed by the Nahua and Totonac tribes from the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz. Five men climb to the top of this very high pole (30 m or 100 ft). While the man at the top of the pole plays a drum and a read pipe, the other four fly to the ground, suspended by ropes. Each Volador decends circling around the pole 13 times before reaching the ground, making a total of 52 rotations. Some say this is to symbolize the 52 weeks in a years. Others say it's the 52 year cycles of the Mesoamerican calendar. The pole represents a vertical connection between the heavens above and the underworld below.