Hueytozoztli (Way-toh-SOS-tlee)
History
Competing Religions
Hueytozoztli was originally an annual festival of Cintēteo celebrating maize in all its forms: popcorn, double ears, rough ears, maturing green maize, small ears of maize, ripened green maize, as well as beans, chía and amaranth. As part of their long term conflicts with the Corn Queens, the Religious Bureaucracy has sought to undermine sects of Cinteteo within the alliance by imposing arbitrary non-traditions during the same time. Even wherever their typical human sacrifices take place, do not appear to galvanize as much notice as traditional activities.Execution
Springtime Festivals
Taking of the Maize
Celebrants wrap corn stalks from their fields in blankets or reed mats. These bundles are offered food and atolli; a drink made of corn flour. At days' end, processions of maize-themed maidens carry offerings of corn leaves and fruits, and corn seeds to be blessed at domestic shrines. They then spend the night dancing in the cornfields to invoke the gods' protection.Mountain Top Venerations
Until rains begin in abundance, child sacrifices to Tlaloc take place on his mountain, and at a designated place on Lake Coco; via drownings. A solemn pilgrimage is led by the Great Speaker and select speakers to the 13,000ft summit of the sacred mountain. Once arrived, these nobles presented their lasvish offerings to a guarded shrine. After a meal, the nobles build a symbolic wall around the shrine and post guards to watch the site, until the offerings have rotted away (usually for the rest of the month).Components and tools
Tota
While festivities are ongoing with the rest of the populace, a large tree is erected in the public courtyard in front of the The Great Temple and surrounded with small tree to form a artificial forest. An incarnate of Chalchiuhtlicue, Goddess of the Sea and Lakes, is made to sit in this forest to symbolize the lake. As the leaders return, the great tree is felled and rafted out to the pantitlan shrine at the center of the lake, where a great fleet of canoes meet the returning leaders. The Incarnate is then sacrificed, her blood poured into the lake and jewelry given to the water. The tree is symbolically replanted by the lake, a stream, a spring or a cultivated field to indicate a renewal of life and growth and left to stand with the remains of trees planted in past ceremonies.Participants
Central Figures
Xilonen
A young girl, carefully selected from noble or commoner families, is honored as the embodiment of Chicomecóatl. She leads the maize-coloured girls, hair arranged in the traditional maize goddess style and - unique to the corn religion - is not sacrificed.City Wide Directive
Tlaloc-related events are notably directed by the upper echelons of the state that commoners simply follow along. Regardless, one of the more popular aspects of this day is in honouring Toci by conducting purification rituals devoted to the women who had died in childbirth, on behalf of the departed women’s spirits.Observance
Hueytozoztli is the fourth month of the sang calendar, when the corn stalks are waist-high. It is also a festival in their religion dedicated to an unconventional mix of deities.
Alternate Name
Huey Tozoztli Uey Tocoztli Long Vigil Great Perforation
Primary Related Location
Important Locations
Related Organizations
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