Rites of Passage

During the third month of the year, "the great piercing," all women who had given birth during the previous year were required to undergo a purification ceremony. Children were named and bled, male children being pierced in the ear and penis and female children only in the ear. When children first began to speak, offerings of flowers and copal incense were carried to the temple of the god Ixtliton. Every four years, a ceremony was celebrated during the month of Ixcalli, the last month of the year, in which newborns were pierced and assigned godmothers and godfathers, who were required to dance in the temple of Ixtliton and given pulque (a liquor made from the fermented sap of maguey) to drink.

At an early age boys born into the aristocracy were sent away to special schools, where they were trained to be priests or warriors. Rituals were an important part of this training. Boys were required to cense images of the gods at regular hours, sweep the patio of the temple in the early morning, and practice such autosacrifices as piercing, fasts, and all-night vigils. The boys also were taken by special attendants each day to the main patio to sing and dance before the gods.

When a young person turned 20, her or his parents arranged marriage with a spouse with compatible calendar signs, and once a propitious date was chosen the wedding was held in the house of the groom. The main part of the wedding ceremony was held before a fire. The couple's wedding garments were tied together while they fed each other tamales, and afterward they retired to the nuptial chamber for four days of prayer before consummating the marriage. On the fifth day they would go to a temazcalli (sweat lodge) and later receive a priest's blessings before beginning a final round of celebrations.