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Exploring the Aztec feast of Tepeilwitl
The twelfth month of the traditional Mexika calendar system is known as Tepeilwitl, “the Feast of the Mountains.” It is believed that the Teteoh known as Tlalok, along with his helpers the Tlalokeh reside within the mountains and misty caves that dot the Mexican landscape. Tlalok and the Tlalokeh are responsible for the rain and are venerated heavily in Mesoamerican cosmovision.
The feast of Tepeilwitl is held in honor of the mountains, Tlalok and the Tlalokeh, and the people who had died water-related deaths. It was thought that those who died by drowning had been selected by Tlalok to join him in Tlalokan, “the place of Tlalok.” The festival also honors the Teteoh known as Xochiketzal, who is considered the female counterpart of Tlalok. During the feast, small figurines representing serpents and mountains are made from amaranth dough and consumed.
Book two of the Florentine Codex provides the following description of Tepeilwitl (pages 23–24):
“In this month they celebrated a feast in honor of the high mountains, which are in all these lands of this New Spain, where large clouds pile up. They made the images of each one of them in human form, from the dough which is called tzoalli, and they laid offerings before these images in veneration of these same mountains.
In honor of the mountains, they made several serpents of wood or the roots of trees, and they fashioned them heads like those of serpents. They also made lengths of wood, as thick as the wrist, and long. They called them ekatotonti. These, as well as the serpents, they overlaid with that dough which they call tzoalli. They covered these pieces in the manner of mountains. Above, they placed the head, like the head of a person. Likewise, they made these images in memory of those who had drowned in the water or had died such a death that they did not burn them, but rather buried them.
After, with many ceremonies, they had placed upon their altars the aforementioned images, they also offered them tamales and other food; they also uttered songs of their praises, and they drank pulque in their honor.
Upon arrival of the feast in honor of the mountains, they slew four women and one man. The first of these women they called Tepexoch. The second they called Matlalkweye. The…
