This page from the Codex Borbonicus, written around the time of the Spanish arrival in Mexico, shows a festival of the offering of flowers, also known as Miccaihuitontli, or “The Small Festival of the Dead.” The left side of the page shows wreaths of flowers and the three gods who were honored at this festival, while the right side shows children dancing. Near the dancers, the page is glossed “Fiesta de los niños a los tres dioses del agua, de la semilla y de la caña. Aquí no entraba mujer”: “Festival of children to the three gods of water, of seeds, and of reeds. Women did not enter here.”
Reference
- Ferdinand Anders et al., eds., Códice Borbónico, 1st ed., Códices Mexicanos 3 (Madrid: Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario; Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt; Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1991). See commentary volume, 205–7.