Xōchiquetzalli

How to recognise Xōchiquetzalli

1. Forever youngShe is always a young woman, never aged, even though she is a mother in the myths, and this is the surest sign that you are looking at her.
2. Quetzal plumesLook for quetzal feathers rising behind her head, the material the Mexica prized above gold; in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis the headdress is a helmet shaped like a quetzal bird.
3. Flower headbandA band of flowers at the brow, or flowers in garlands, echoes her name and her festivals, which centre on blossoms.
4. QuechquemitlShe wears a quechquemitl, a woven shoulder cape-blouse, a nod to her patronage of weavers and embroiderers.
5. Earrings and butterfly nose ornamentStone carvings show low-hanging earrings, and colonial-period images add a butterfly nose ornament (yacapapalotl), which she shares with Chalchiuhtlicue.
6. Throne and creaturesIn the Codex Borbonicus she sits on a throne, and in the Borbonicus and Telleriano-Remensis a jaguar, a snake and a centipede emerge from beneath it as attributes of her seat.
7. Open handsHer hands are often outstretched, read as a gesture of welcome or of dance.

Names and titles

• Precious Feather FlowerThe meaning of her Nahuatl name, from xōchitl (flower) and quetzalli (precious feather)
• The MaidenIchpōchtli, her title, used of her as the goddess who never ages
• Lady of TamoanchanShe belonged to Tamoanchan, the flowering garden paradise of the west
• Patron of Weavers and ArtisansWeavers, embroiderers, featherworkers and painters looked to her
• Keeper of the Flower DayXōchitl, 'Flower', is a day sign of the sacred calendar governed by her

Feast days

• Tlaxochimaco5 August, every year

  The ninth Nahua month, whose name is usually rendered 'offering' or 'bestowal' of flowers. Sources disagree on its patron. Some name Huitzilopochtli, while modern Mexica-revival calendars devote it to Xochiquetzal, the goddess of flowers, love and the arts.

  How it's celebrated. Older accounts describe people exchanging flowers and decorating with garlands. Modern revival calendars describe gathering flowers and leaving them at an altar overnight. At dawn people make flower ropes and crowns, dance in linked lines or around a round altar, and offer flowers and copal to Xochiquetzal. Lovers exchange flowers. The sources name no specific places.

  Sources: Calendario Mexica: Tlaxochimaco · MexConnect: Mexico flowers and flower art · Wikipedia: Tlaxochimaco

• Tepeílhuitl (Hueypachtli)24 October, every year

  The thirteenth Nahua month, the 'feast of the mountains', also called Pachtli or Hueypachtli. It chiefly honoured the mountains and the rain gods, Tlaloc and the Tlaloque. Xochiquetzal's devotees also took part, and her eight-yearly rite Atamalcualiztli is linked with this season.

  How it's celebrated. Historical accounts describe images of the mountains and the Tlaloque being given painted faces and paper ornaments. They were offered incense and food, and people drank pulque and sang for them. Xochiquetzal was honoured with flower offerings and drinking. Scholars also record ritual sacrifice of impersonators. I found no well-documented modern observance, and the sources name no specific places.

  Sources: Graulich: Aztec Festivals of the Rain Gods · Mythopedia: Xochiquetzal · Wikipedia: Tepeilhuitl