The Love Story of the Cempasúchil Flower

The Love Story of the Cempasúchil Flower

How the cempasúchil flower came to be the official Dia de Muertos Flor. 

The legend of the Marigold or Cempasúchil flower comes from a beautiful love story. Two Aztecs, Xóchitl and Huitzilin, grew up playing together. As they grew older a romance blossomed. 

Xóchitl and Huitzilin would hike to the top of a nearby mountain where they offered flowers to the Sun God Tonatiuh. The God appreciated their offering and would smile from the sky with his warm rays.  One day while on the top of the mountain, they swore that their love would last forever, even after death. 

One day war broke out. Huitzilin left to defend their homeland. Soon, Xóchitl's worst fear came to pass. Her heart was broken hearing of Huitzilin’s death. 

Xóchitl decided to walk to the top of the mountain one last time. She beseeched the Sun God, Tonatiuh, to reunite her with her love Huitzilin.  Tonatiuh was touched by her prayers and sent a ray to gently warm her cheek. Instantaneously she turned into a beautiful flower of fiery colors as intense as the sun’s rays. A hummingbird appeared, lovingly touching the center of the flower with its beak. 

It was Huitzilin reborn as a handsome hummingbird. Xóchitl gently opened her petals, filling the air with a lovely mystique scent.

Legend says as long as hummingbirds and cempasúchil flowers endure on earth the lovers will always be together. 

*Cempasúchil comes from the Aztec language, the Nahuatl, and means twenty petals flower. 

📷: Georgina Hernandez

Resource: inside-Mexico.com