The five Nemontemi, ‘days that fill in vain,’ close the Aztec year 1-Tochtli. These were the most dreaded days in the xiuhpohualli. No god claimed them. No cooking, no trading, no marriage, no lovemaking. People born during Nemontemi carried misfortune for life. The Nemontemi represented cosmic emptiness, the gap between ordered time cycles where chaos could leak through. All fires were extinguished. The entire empire held its breath, waiting to see if the new year, 2-Acatl, would begin at all.