15 - Tecuilhuitontli

Before the coming of the Spanish, society among the tribes of Anahuac was highly stratified, with kings, royal families, and nobles forming an upper class distinct from the craftsmen, farmers, and slaves who lived benieth them. During Etzalcualiztli, the peasant farmers gave offerings. During Tecuilhuitontli, the Small Feast of Lords and the following metztli of Huey Tecuilhuitl, the Great Feast of Lords, it was the great and powerful who gave offerings and contemplated their place in world, both their responsibilities and their privileges. The Small Feast of Lords was devoted to the noblewomen, who dressed in their most beautiful clothing, in their finest jewels and feathers, with elegantly painted faces and bodies, and crowned and draped in flowers. They went in procession through the streets, giving offerings at the temples in gratitude for their high position in society, and giving praise to the Teteo for their many gifts. It was a time of feasting and merriment, in which the noblewomen went to parties and were permitted, under the watchful eyes of chaperones, to flirt and dance with strange men. It was a time in which everyone celebrated feminine beauty and charm. But, more importantly, it was a time for the women to give thanks for and seek the blessings of the goddesses who guide their lives, of Coyolxauhqui the Moon, and Toci, Our Grandmother, and Cihuacoatl, the Earth, and the Cihuateteo, who died in childbirth and were reborn divine. As the rains fall and the earth blooms, women seek union with the goddesses who have gifted them the mysteries of life, creation, menstruation, pregnancy, and intuition.

Today there is no longer a class of noblewomen to celebrate Tecuilhuitontli in the ancient way. But, falling as it does in the heart of Xopan, during the period when the power of the goddesses are at Their height, it is appropriate for all women to celebrate their many gifts, and for men to honor them and join in their feasting. An altar should be made on which the goddesses are arrayed, beneath a bower of flowers, and offerings of food placed before them. The women should wear their most beautiful regalia in a thousand colors, and paint their arms and faces yellow, with red lips and spots of red upon their cheeks, while the men, if men are present, should dress simply, in white. Cookies shaped like moons and rabbits, cooked squash-blossoms on blue-corn tortillas, tamales, and other delicacies, are served at a feast, in which the women first dance with one another, and only after permit the men, if they should deign to invite men, to join them. 

Tecuilhuitontli is also sacred to Huixtocihuatl, Salt Woman, who is Our Lady Salt, Our Lady the Sea. She is a sister of the Tlaloqueh, who at the dawn of time battled with Them. She was defeated, and cast into the sea, and Her body of salt dissolved and became the brackish lakes and the water in the ocean. During the season of rain, we give honor to Our Mother the Sea, for without Her we cannot live, and She is honored for Her life-giving salt. If you live near the sea, you should go to the seashore, and give offerings and ceremonies to Her. We have mistreated Her with pollution, endless rivers of plastic, overfishing, and all of the other cruelties we have thoughtlessly inflicted upon Her. She is angry, and now threatens to flood all the shores of the world. Give Her praise and thanks for Her abundance, dance for Her, cast drops of your blood into Her waves, and brilliant flowers which give Her joy, and then volunteer to pick up trash, or save sea-turtles, or give up eating non sustainable sea-food, or donate money, or in some other way sacrifice for Her, and give back to Her some small part of what She has given to you. 

The Ceremonies of Tecuilhuitontli

Falling as it does in the heart of Xopan, during the period when the power of the goddesses are at Their height, it is appropriate for all women to celebrate their many gifts, and for men to honor them and join in their feasting. An altar should be made on which all the goddesses are arrayed, with Huixtocihuatl at the center, beneath a bower of flowers, and offerings of food placed before them. The women should wear their most beautiful regalia in a thousand colors, and paint their arms and faces yellow, with red lips and spots of red upon their cheeks, while the men, if men are present, should dress simply, in white. Cookies shaped like moons and rabbits, cooked squash-blossoms on blue-corn tortillas, tamales, and other delicacies, are served at a feast, in which the women first dance with one another, and only after permit the men, if they should deign to invite men, to join them.