The day is almost over, the sun is about to
set. It seems that the strength and vitality are gone. It seems it is time to take
some rest from the long journey. A time to rest physically, but also a time for
the intellect to focus inward, to look at ourselves, to see what we have done
and what we want to do.
Tlaxochimaco is also
known as Micailhuitontli because at
this time of year we remember and honor our Ancestors, our loved ones that have
departed to Mictlán. Flowers are offered to the deceased. Offerings of food and drink were
brought on their tombs.
Tlaxochimaco means Offering of Flowers. Though the most
wide-spread Náuatl name was the name of its Ceremony Miccailhuitontli,
"Little Festival of the Deceased". This veintena was coupled with the
following one, called Xocotl Huetzi, with its Ceremony being called
Huey Micailhuitl, the "Great Festival of the Dead".
The Otomí and Matlatzinca corresponding festivals were also
coupled with the following ones and their names equally mean "Festival of
the Dead".
Two days before the Ceremony,
flowers of every kind, such as Yoloxoxitl, Xiloxoxitl and Tzempoalxoxitl, are
gathered to create garlands to adorn the Teocaltin (house of Energy). On
the eve of the feast, tamales are made; our Ancestors also prepared and killed huey-xolotl
(turkeys) and itzcuintlin for the next day's banquets. The day of the
feast, the first flowers are offered together with incense and food, exactly at
noon, first to Huitzilopochtli, and next to the other Energies. With
this offering, we appreciate and recognize everything the Sun/Huitzilopochtli
gives us. Our Ancestors also used to prepare huauhtli (amaranth) sculptures
depicting Huitzilopochtli. This sculpture was adorned with flowers.
There was feasting and in
the afternoon the warriors and the young men performed a serpentine dance.
According to the Codex Magliabechiano, Tezcatlipoca’s Teocalli was also adorned
with flowers.
During this veintena, our
Ancestors went looking for a big tree trunk that was to be erected in the
Templo Mayor's courtyard during the following veintena or Xocotl Huetzi.
When this tree called xocotl, "fruit", drew near to the city
everybody went out to meet it and to offer flowers to it. The cihuame (women)
came to "capture" it and an impersonator of the energy of the Toci-Teteo
innan, "Our Grandmother-Mother of all Energies” came to welcome it. The
ceremony was called xoconamicoyan, "where the xocotl is met"; namico
is a passive form of namiqui, a verb that means "to go and meet
someone" but whose compelling form namictia is translated as
"to marry" and whose derived substantives namictli and namique
mean "husband" or "wife".
The planting of the xocotl during the following month symbolizes the fecundation of
Earth. This is why the tree was greeted and smudged only by cihuame (women).
The illustrations of the
codices Telleriano- Remensis and Vaticanus A represent a funerary bundle with a
mask of Cihuacoatl-Chantico or Xochiquetzal, both earth and
fertility energies. It is important to
keep in mind the very position of Tlaxochimaco
/ Miccailhuitontli and Xocotl Huetzi
/ Huey Miccailhuitl in the ritual year. It is the end of the dry season and
of the year. A year being assimilated to a day, it was the evening and
sunset. Soon the night would begin.
Tlaxochimaco recalls not only the second feast of the
dry season, but also the veintena called Teotlehco,
"Arrival of the Energies". In Teotlehco
the Energies were supposed to appear on earth. Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli
came first, while Yacatecuhtli and Xiuhtecutli, the Fire Energy arrived
last. Now, in Tlaxochimaco / Miccailhuitl, at the end of the year,
the Energies take leave: first Tezcatlipoca
and Huitzilopochtli again, and this
is why they were the first ones to receive flowers. Then, during the next veintena,
the last ones to leave will be celebrated: Xiuhtecuhtli
and Yacatecuhtli.
Together, Miccailhuitontli
and Huey Miccailhuitl formed the main Ceremonies of the deceased. These veintenas
correspond to the late afternoon, when the female energy accompanies the sun.
They also correspond to the Tlalohcan-Tamoanchan level where the dead
warriors went to rejoice by sucking flowers. It is almost the end of the day
and it is mid-year, and the sun is setting.
These are lots of good reasons to remember the Dead. During Toxcatl,
at the beginning of the afternoon, the veintena was dedicated to Tezcatlipoca
and Huitzilopochtli; Etzalcualiztli was dedicated to Tlaloc (the
energy of the rain), the two following veintenas (Tecuilhuiltontli and Huey
Tecuilhuitl) were dedicated to the Tecuhltin (the Protective
Energies); now in Tlaxochimaco, it is the deceased Ancestor's turn.
During the preceding veintenas the harvested food had been celebrated and
redistributed; now all the Energies and the deceased received their part.
