The Aztec month dedicated to the god Tezcatlipoca was Toxcatl. It was the fifth twenty-day period, or veintena, in the 365-day xiuhpohualli calendar and also gave its name to the major festival held during that period.
Toxcatl was one of the most important ceremonies devoted to Tezcatlipoca, a powerful deity associated with night, darkness, conflict, rulership, fate, and the invisible forces shaping human life. The central ritual involved a young man chosen to impersonate the god for an entire year. He was dressed in fine clothing and jewelry, taught music and courtly behavior, and honored as a living image of Tezcatlipoca.
At the festival’s climax, the impersonator was sacrificed, after which a new representative was selected for the following year. The ceremony expressed both the god’s grandeur and the temporary nature of worldly power.
Toxcatl also became historically significant during the Spanish conquest. In 1520, Spanish forces attacked celebrants during the festival in Tenochtitlan, an event remembered as the Toxcatl Massacre. That attack helped turn an already tense encounter into open war.