Xiuhtecuhtli, or “Turquoise Lord,” a youthful lord of fire, imbued Mexica rulers with the power—and responsibility—to propel time forward. The Nahuatl word xihuitl means “turquoise” but also “year,” connecting the deity with the solar cycle. Festivals dedicated to Xiuhtecuhtli both commemorated and protected this cycle. Every four years, at the festival of Xiuhtecuhtli in Tenochtitlan, the Mexica ruler would dress in the guise of the deity and dance, embodying his divine power. Xiuhtecuhtli also governed the essential New Fire, or Binding of the Years, ceremony, a rite enacted every fifty-two years to maintain the sun’s cyclical journey and, thus, the solar era.