The Aztec "Sun stone" presenting elements of the Aztec calendar.

Toxcatl was the name of the fifth twenty-day month or "veintena" of the Aztec calendar which lasted from approximately the 5th to 22nd of May and of the festival which was held every year in this month.^[1] The Festival of Toxcatl was dedicated to the god Tezcatlipoca and featured the sacrifice of a young man who had been impersonating the deity for a full year. The sun stone also called the Aztec calendar on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. ... Tezcatlipoca as depicted in the Codex Borgia. ... Human sacrifice was an aspect of historical Aztec culture/religion, although the extent of the practice is debated by scholars. ...

The so called Toxcatl Massacre, a turning point in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, occurred when the Spaniards who were tolerated as guests in Tenochtitlan attacked and massacred the unprepared Aztecs during the celebration of Toxcatl. This caused the outbreak of open hostilities between the Aztecs and Spaniards, and during the Noche Triste a few weeks later the Spaniards fled the city. The massacre in the Main Temple of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán is an episode in the Spanish conquest of Mexico which occurred on May 10, 1520. ... Aztec empire The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of America. ... Tenochtitlan, looking east. ... La Noche Triste (the sad night) was an episode in the Spanish conquest of Mexico where Hernan Cortes expedition was nearly annihilated in the Aztec capital, and barely succeeded in escaping the Aztecs by night. ...

Calendrics

Main article: Aztec Calendar

The Aztec calendar was composed of two separate cycles - one of 260 days called the tonalpohualli (day count) and one of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli (year count). The sun stone also called the Aztec calendar on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. ... The Tonalpohualli,the day-count in English, is the 260 day sacred calendar of early Mesoamericans. ... The Xiuhpohualli was a calendar cycle constructed from a count of 365 days, used by the Aztecs and other Nahua peoples from the central Mexican region during the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology. ...

The 365-day xiuhpohualli consisted of 18 twenty-day "months" (or veintenas), plus an additional 5 days at the end of the year. Some descriptions of the Aztec calendar state that it also included a leap day which allowed the calendar cycle to remain aligned with the same agrarian cycles year after year. But other descriptions state that the leap year was unknown to the Aztecs and that the correlation of the months to the astronomical year would change over time. A veintena is a subdivision used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican calendars, consisting of a 20-day period. ... For the 1921 film starring Fatty Arbuckle, see Leap Year (film). ... A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. ...

In any case, from the descriptions of Spanish conquistadors who witnessed the celebration of Toxcatl in 1521 we know that in that year the feast fell in our month of May. A Conquistador (Spanish: []) (English: Conqueror) was a Spanish soldier, explorer and adventurer who took part in the gradual invasion and conquering of much of the Americas and Asia Pacific, bringing them under Spanish colonial rule between the 15th and 19th centuries. ... Events January 3 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. ...

The Name

According to Fray Diego Durán the name Toxcatl derives from the Nahuatl verb toxcahuia meaning "wither from thirst". Toxcatl then means "drought". Many other meanings have since been proposed for the name - many having to do with the necklaces of grilled maize that were worn by the revellers during the festivities.^[2] The Aztecs also used the name Tepopochtli (smoking or fumigation) to refer to the month of Toxcatl. The name of the corresponding month in other Mesoamerican cultures often have to do with smoke, steam or clouds. The Otomi word for the feast was Atzbhipi, bhipi meaning smoke. The Kaqchikel name was Cibixic, meaning "cloudy smoke". The Matlatzinca word for the feast however was Unditini meaning "we are going to grill maize". Diego Durán (c. ... For the Spanish language as spoken in Mexico, see Mexican Spanish. ... This article is about the culture area. ... The Otomi language is an indigenous language of Mexico, spoken across a number of central Mexican states by the ethnic group widely known as the Otomi but who refer to themselves as Hñähñu (or similar, depending on the language variant). ... The Kaqchikel (in modern orthography; formerly also spelled Cakchiquel) are one of the indigenous Maya peoples of the midwestern highlands in Guatemala. ... Matlatzinca is a name used to refer to different indigenous ethnic groups in the Toluca Valley in the state of Edo. ...

The Festival

The Aztec god Tezcatlipoca depicted in the Codex Borgia.

The rituals which the Aztecs carried out during the feast of Toxcatl are described by Bernardino de Sahagún in the Florentine Codex, in Fray Duráns description of the gods and rites, and in the chronicle of Juan Bautista Pomar. Image File history File links Black_Tezcatlipoca. ... Image File history File links Black_Tezcatlipoca. ... Tezcatlipoca as depicted in the Codex Borgia. ... Divine being Quetzalcoatl in human form, using the symbols of Ehecatl, from the Codex Borgia. ... For other uses, see Aztec (disambiguation). ... Bernardino de Sahagún Bernardino de Sahagún (1499 – October 23, 1590), was a Franciscan missionary to the Aztec (Nahua) people of Mexico, best known as the compiler of the Florentine Codex, also known as Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (General History of the Things of... Page 51 of Book IX from the Florentine Codex. ... Diego Durán (c. ...

The most important part of the Toxcatl ritual was the sacrifice of a young man who had been impersonating Tezcatlipoca since the last Toxcatl festival, and the selection of a new man to take that role in the year to come.

The youth chosen to be the ixiptlatli^[3] (impersonator) of Tezcatlipoca was normally a war captive.^[4] He was taught courtly speech, singing and to play the flute. Throughout the year he would parade in the streets of Tenochtitlan and be treated with great reverence. His skin was painted black except for a ribbon across his eyes, he was dressed in precious jewellery and cotton embroidered clothes. He wore a snail-shell lip pendant, eagle down headdress, turquoise bracelets and golden bells on his his ankles.^[5] Tenochtitlan, looking east. ...

He walked about the city playing the flute, smoking tobacco and smelling flowers, and people would salute him as the living image of the god. At the building called Quauhxicalco he would sometimes burn copal incense and play his flute. Several times during the year he would meet with the Aztec ruler, the tlatoani, who would ritually adorn him. In the month of Huey Tozoztli which preceded Toxcatl, he would be ritually wed to four maidens who impersonated the goddesses Xochiquetzal, Xilonen, Atlatonan and Huixtocihuatl, and he lived with them for twenty days. Four days before the main ceremony the tlatoani secluded himself in his palace and the Tezcatlipoca impersonator and his four wives paraded through the city. On the fifth day they travelled by canoe to a place called Acaquilpan, here he was left to himself by his wives near the temple Tlacochcalco ("In the House of Darts"). He then freely walked up the stairs of the pyramid, breaking a flute on each step. At the summit the priests would lay him on a sacrificial stone, open his chest with an obsidian dagger, and remove his heart. He was beheaded and his skull was placed on the tzompantli (skull rack), his body was flayed and his flesh was distributed among the nobles of the city and eaten. The warcaptive who was to be the next impersonator of Tezcatlipoca also took part in the flesh and probably also wore the skin of his predecessor.^[6] Copal is a type of resin, sometimes referred to as pom (the Maya language name). ... A tlatoani was a member of the Aztec nobility. ... In Aztec mythology, Xochiquetzal (flower feather) was a goddess of flowers, fertility, games, dancing and agriculture, as well as craftsmen, prostitutes and pregnant women. ... In Aztec mythology, Chicomecoatl was the goddess of maize and fertility. ... In Aztec mythology, Atlatonin was a mother goddess and a goddess of the coast. ... In Aztec mythology, Huixtocihuatl (or Uixtochihuatl, Uixtociuatl) was a fertility goddess who presided over salt and salt water. ... A stake used to display the heads of victims or defeated Mesoamerican ball game opponents. ...

During the feast other deity impersonators were also sacrificed. Offerings of food, flowers and paper banners were made throughout the festival, and as the offerings were presented the people danced the "Leap of Toxcatl". Men would also perform the dance of the Serpent", and the women a dance named "Grilled Corn". During these dances there would be kissing and playing between men and women.^[7] After the dances the participants were ritually scarred by the priests of Tezcatlipoca (the tlatlacanahualtin). Scarification is a term that is used to describe the act of scarifying. ...

Interpretations

Eduard Seler saw the Toxcatl ritual as symbol of the change of season represented as the death and rebirth of Tezcatlipoca. He likens Toxcatl to its K'iche' Maya equivalent, the feast of Jun Raqan, which is the celebration of the new year. Michel Graulich, who advocates a different calendrical correlation, places Toxcatl in the fall and sees the festival as a harvest feast celebrating the abundance of maize. Olivier (2003) stresses the importance of the actions of the tlatoani in the ritual and sees the feast as a way for the ruler to offer a worthy sacrifice to the lord of rulership, Tezcatlipoca. The Kiche (or Quiché in Spanish spelling), are a Native American people, one of the Maya ethnic groups. ... In Maya mythology, Huracan (one legged) was a wind, storm and fire god and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity. ...

Notes

References

• Hvidtfeldt, Arild (1958). Teotl and Ixiptlatli: some central conceptions in ancient Mexican religion: with a general introduction on cult and myth. Copenhagen: Munksgaard. 
• Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. 
• Olivier, Guilhem (2003). Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God - Tezcatlipoca, "Lord of the Smoking Mirror". University Press of Colorado. ISBN 0-87081-745-0.