2026 is the year of One Rabbit [Ce Tochtli] according to the Aztec calendar. The beginning of the year in this calendar usually coincides with March in the modern Gregorian calendar. So I will do my best to finish this drawing by the end of the month.
The One Rabbit year was considered ill-omened by the Aztecs. They believed catastrophic events such as famine would occur this year. Ce Tochtli returned every 52 years because of the cyclical nature of their calendar, so this ‘curse’ of the One Rabbit was prophetic.
Surprisingly, this belief was founded on actual experience. Various Nahuatl annals mention severe natural disasters such as drought, dust storms, heavy snowfall, and subsequent famine in almost every One Rabbit years. The most devastating disaster occurred in 1454, which was so traumatic that practically every extent Nahuatl annals includes this incident.
This is supported by modern climate studies. According to Mexican tree-ring data analysis, severe drought occurred immediately before 10 of the 13 One Rabbit years spanning from 882 to 1558. This drought led to the significant drop in harvests next year —which is One Rabbit— resulting in famine. As Matthew D. Therrel puts it, “This relationship between drought and the year preceding One Rabbit is statistically significant and suggests a real climatic origin for the “curse of One Rabbit.”
Fittingly, the deities celebrating this year are rabbits. These rabbits are collectively called Centzon Totochtin, or “countless [400] rabbits.” They are gods of pulque (octli), drunkenness, and fertility. A considerable number of rituals revolved around these important rabbit deities, because pulque itself was considered a sacred drink. The Aztecs viewed the powerful effects of alcohol as a means to access sacred realms. They would ritually consume pulque to induce visions of the divine.
All totochtin deities had individual names. The commander of them all is Ometochtli, which is a calendrical name that means ‘Two Rabbit’. Other pulque deities include Macuiltochtli, Tepoztecatl, Colhuatzincatl, Yauhtecatl, Tezcatzoncatl, Papaztac, Toltecatl, Patecatl, Tlaltecayoa, Totoltecatl, Tlilhuatzin, Ixtliltzin, and so on.
Centzon Totochtin all wore similar attire. Ten of these pulque gods are depicted in Codex Magliabecchiano and Codex Tudela. They are wearing an aztatzontli, or white heron feather headdress. What’s interesting is the gold piece placed at the front of this headdress. In 2007, this small ornament was actually discovered in Tenochtitlan’s Templo Mayor site. It was part of the offerings buried under the pyramid, labeled Offerings no. 125.
Their faces are painted in two contrasting colors: a central field of red, flanked by two fields of black or dark green, sometimes decorated with yellow lozenge-shaped elements on the cheeks. This facial painting was called mixchictlapanticac, and it’s the prime diagnostic iconographic element of the octli deities. The red band at the center symbolizes drunkenness. The design layout on the rectangular shield of Tepoztecatl replicates this facial painting pattern.
Pulque gods in codices all wear crescent-shaped noseplugs called yacametztli. Their shields also have this same insignia. In the Mesoamerican cosmic worldview, rabbits were often associated with the moon. Moon, fertility, alcohol, and pleasure occur as common theme across several lunar deities, such as Mayahuel, Tlazolteotl, Tecciztecatl, and Centzon Totochtin.
They also wear a unique necklace. On the neck is a wide greenstone collar edged with gold bells. Right under this collar hangs a circular gold mirror. Also there is a long, loose neckpiece composed of malinalli grass (tlachayahualcozqui), which is also edged with gold bells. This whole ensemble was called the chayahuac cozcatl. For the sake of simplicity, I omitted the grass garland apart from Ometochtli.
As for the clothing, Magliabecchiano and Tudela depict them all wearing a xicolli, a jacket often worn by priests. I drew Tezcatzoncatl and Ometochtli wearing a tilmatli (cloak) over the xicolli. Their cloaks are made of ometochtecomayo design, which, as the name suggests, is a symbol of the pulque gods. Ometochtli is also holding a ceremonial obsidian axe called itztopolli.
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Sources
Codex Tudela, 1540
Codex Mendoza, 1542
Codex Magliabecchiano, 1550s
Primeros Memoriales (Codex Matritenses), 1561
Berdan, Frances F. Anawalt, Patricia Rieff. The Essential Codex Mendoza. University of California Press. 1992.
Sullivan, Thelma D. et al. Primeros memoriales: paleography of Nahuatl text and English translation. University of Oklahoma Press. 1997.
Therrel, Matthew D. et al. “Aztec Drought and the ‘Curse of One Rabbit’”. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. September 2004.
Tena, Rafael, “Dioses de la fertilidad agrícola y humana, y del placer”, Complejo 11. Metztli”, Arqueología Mexicana, edición especial, núm. 30. April 2009.
Berdan, F. Berdan. Smith, Michael E. Everyday Life In The Aztec World. Cambridge University Press. 2021.