Tlaxochimaco

Execution

Seeking Flowers

For two days at the beginning of the festival, the people would travel outside the city in order to pick wild flowers. Throughout the month, flower garlands are then offered to the gods and ancestors by placing them on public statues.
People gather together to make turkey tamales and sing and dance and touch hands while dancing in long lines encircling the statues.

Commemorative Feast

Tezcatlipoca is honored in his nahualli form of Chalchiuhtotolin, through the feasting of turkey and maize cakes prepared the night before. Other fowls, fruits and great quantities of seeds and ahuauhtle are shared between housholds to commemorate the month's passing.

Components and tools

Xokotl Pole

A large tree is cut down and brought into the central plaza. This tree is stripped of its branches and decorated with paper vestments. It serves as another point where dancers prance around.

Wreaths of Flowers

It is during this month that the people travel throughout the country and up the mounds and mountains to gather flowers. They then string them together into long and thick garlands to be placed on statues of the teteo.
The flowers used are varied and include:

• Hummingbird Flowers
• Coyote’s Eyes
• Jaguar Lilies
• Pukeweeds

• Shade Shrubs
• Ruby Golds
• Marigolds
• Sunspun

• Water Pipe Flowers
• Banana Waterlilies
• Mountain Sunflowers
• White and Red Water Lilies

Participants

Dancers

Dances during Tlaxochimaco are somber affairs. Tradition dictates a quiet and orderly formation like that of a serpent's movement.

Common People

The dances are backed by the rhythm of drums where the women and men dance together while grasping each other’s hands on one side and resting their arms around each other’s necks with the other.
At this time, only the old women and men are allowed to drink.

Children

There is a separate dance for children called "Festival of children to the three gods of water, of seeds and of reeds"; during which adult women are forbidden.
This is to honour the children who had recently passed away, alongside additional offerings of cocao, candles, seeds, and food.

Awianime

One dance in particular involves the city’s pleasure girls dancing between pairs of high ranking warriors. They girls are held by the waist, who inturn hold the men's hands and went winding to and fro in a line.

• There is no leaping or bending.
• There is no great dance gestures or arm movements.
• They did not whirl or throw themselves themselves continuously.

They continue to dance this way until the sun sets.

Incarnate

During this month, a specially designated sacrifice is offered to Huitzilopochtli. A boy holding a bouquet of flowers in each hand. His face painted pink and above his head appears another mache head with a headdress of green feathers, blue neckpiece, and gold pendants.

Observance

Tlaxochimaco is the name of the ninth Month of the calendar. It is also a 20-day religious festival dedicated to the God of War: Huitzilopochtli whose attribute is the sky-blue color of the neckpiece worn by his incarnate.

Alternate Names

• Month of Flowers
• Miccailhuitontli
• Bestowal of Flowers
• Feast to the Revered Deceased
• Small Festival of the Dead

Primary Related Location

Dragonsgrave

Related Ethnicities

• Sang