11 Cozcacuauhtli, 12 Ollin, 13 Tecpatl // 4 Xocotlhuetzi

So much for daily!  Missed 11 Cozcacuauhtli (11 Buzzard) yesterday.  It is all good, though, as my earlier post noted, all the days following 10 Cuauhtli (10 Eagle) are good days.  Today is the 12th day in the trecena 1 Miquiztli (1 Death).  The large festival for this veintena is only about eight days out -- it would start at sunset on the 19th day following Caso's (1971:345) assertion that the feast days fell on the 20th of the veintena.

I should also note that Caso (1958; 1971:345) places the start of any particular day at noon.  I suppose then, that today's entry should actually address 13 Tecpatl (13 Flint), as I'm typing this after noon.  This day would then end the trecena, with tomorrow hosting the start of the new trecena, 1 Quiahuitl (1 Rain).  That would make today quite significant, as preparations should be made for the coming descent of the Cihuateteo, as the day 1 Quiahuitl is one of the days that they return to earth to wreak their particular type of havoc (see Sahagún book 6).  More on this 'moveable feast' the day after tomorrow then.

According to Sahagún (6:39) the day 11 Cozcachuahtli was a good one, and accordingly one born on that day "would grow old; he would become bent with age.  The sun would fulfill him and take him into his house."  Growing old was a good thing in Aztec Tenochtitlan, you will recall.  Among other things, the aged had unlimited access to pulque!  Nevertheless, 12 Ollin and 13 Tecpatl were also good days, as Sahagún adds, noting that they were all lifted by the providential tide of 10 Cuauhtli.

In terms of the tonalamatl then, particularly Codex Borbonicus 6, we are still in the 1 Miquiztli trecena presided over by Tezcatlipoca (as Titlacahuan/Yaotl Tezcatlipoca) and Tecciztecatl.  The day lord for 11 Cozcacuahtli is Mictlateuctli, for 12 Ollin it is Tlahuizcalpanteuctli, and for 13 Tecpatl it is Ilamateuctli/Mictlancihuatl.  On Borbonicus 6, Mictlanteuctli appears with black body/face paint, with red around the mouth.  He wears the typical white paper rosette (cuexcuchtechimalli / ixcuatechimal) device in his circlet, and it is topped by a turquoise diadem with a grey/white striped (turkey?) feather and quetzal feather panache.  The paper rosettes mark this figure as an underworld deity, while the diadem (xiuhuitzolli) serves as a semantic indicator for the -teuctli portion of his name.

Tlahuizcalpanteuctli has some of the more varied depictions in the Borbonicus, at least in his inclusion as day/number lord.  For Borbonicus 6 he appears with a red leather circlet topped with his usual teardrop-shaped motif.  His feather panache is made of white and quetzal feathers.  As did Mictlanteuctli, he wears a turquoise earspool with red and white paper(?) streamers attached.  As well he has a small golden curl that descends from the back of his earspool, possibly the descending curl of his blond hair (quite a few of the day and night lords are shown with blond hair in the Borbonicus).  He has yellow body paint with red at his mouth and black around his eyes.  Ilamatuectli, day-lord of 13 Tecpatl, is depicted as a variant of Mictlancihuatl (compare her to the version of Mictlanteuctli shown as the night-lord for 12 Ollin).

ye ixquich

10 Cuauhtli (Tuesday, April 26, 2011)

The 10th day in the trecena 1 Miquiztli.  If this is year 38, it would be 12 Acatl.  This would make today the 182nd day in the year (Xihuitl), and it would fall as the second day of the eleventh veintena Xocotlhuetzi (using Caso's veintena order).

The Codex Borbonicus 6 lists the patrons of the night as Piltzinteuctli.  As this is the 10th day in the trecena, it has as its 'day lord' Tezcatlipoca, and its volatile is the horned owl.  Piltzinteuctli wears his simple turquoise bead circlet tied with a leather band.  His hair is yellow and he wears bi-colored facepaint with red above and yellow below.  He wears a 'star' earspool and has a golden curl descending from the circlet strap.  Tezcatlipoca is shown with black body paint, with yellow stripes at his mouth and the top of his forehead.  There is a red patch above his ear that bears the usual solar ray earspool.  His circlet consists of a heart with blood spraying from it (forward), with his 'smoking' glyph right behind it (above the ear).  As is the case with these Borbonicus illustrations, the curl of smoke emerges from a white down-like ball.  His hair (?) is made of upright feathers painted grey (in form, quite a bit like the feathers on the headdress of the Tecciztecatl patron in the large square).  Interestingly, this is the last depiction of the "10" Tezcatlipoca that has his circlet and hair/headdress painted until the 13th trecena Ollin (the previous three were painted), and those following the 13th trecena are not painted either.

While I'm starting this blog today, and missed the beginning of this trecena, I should probably say a few things about 1 Miquiztli.  Above all, this trecena starts with the day-name of Tezcatlipoca (according to Sahagún 4:33).  According to Sahagún, it was a time of veneration of Tezcatlipoca and a  time of offerings and blood sacrifices.  Sahagún also notes that people made the slaves happy at this time (?), and that the day was greatly venerated by the lords (tlatoque).

In general, the day 1 Miquiztli was favorable.  And those born on it were given a variant of Tezcatlipoca's name (i.e. Miquiz, Yaotl, Cenyaotl, Necoco yaotl, Chicoyaotl . . . ).  Slaves were set free of their collars and bathed and treated nicely.

Sahagún goes on to discuss the events of 10 Cuauhtli, calling it a good day sign (4:38).  A day of "strength and courage" one born on it would be a great and fearless warrior.  He would take prisoners -- or she, as the passage concludes with a cryptic "then was the time when the one who had been born was bathed, man or woman."   He then goes on to state that the following days were influenced by 10 Cuauhtli, so they were all good as well.  He also includes a statement that most "10" days were considered to be good.

The feast of Xocotlhuetzi was one of the major festivals dedicated to Xiuhteuctli and Huitzilopochtli in Tenochtitlan.  As Betty Brown has discussed (1988) this festival was also called Huey Miccailhuitl in some sources and celebrated the honored dead (particularly war dead).  According to Sahagún (2:111-113), on day one of the festival, the great Xocotl pole was set up.  It was a large tree whose branches had been removed.  It would stand in the ceremonial plaza for twenty days (actually 18 days, as Sahagún notes that it was lowered to be treated and adorned two days before the festival itself that took place on the 20th day).

In 18 days (17 days from today), the tree was lowered and was then meticulously smoothed out and adorned with ropes and other things such as little amarath figures and paper streamers.  Once the pole was set up, war captives were sacrificed.  The captors were painted red and yellow (much like the painting of Piltzinteuctli in the Borbonicus).  They bore butterfly adornments and shields with eagle or jaguar legs depicted on them.  The captives were painted with chalk and wore paper adornments, had feather lip pendants, and were painted red around the mouth and black around the eyes (a pretty standard outfit for captives as the pictorials suggest).

When the sun set on the 18th day, the captives were guarded.  The next day, hair would be taken from the crown of the captives hair and bound with red thread and adorned with forked heron feathers.  This was placed in a reed box that would then be hung from the rafters of the captor's house as a war trophy.  At dawn of the second day (most believe that the day had actually begun at sunset the day before), the captives were taken to the skull rack.  Their adornments were burned in a cuauhxicalli and they were then led by the impersonator of Paynal to the place of their sacrifice.