This cache was placed as an icebreaker for the NoVAGO Spring 2019 event, NoVAGO 2019 Evento de Primavera del Cinco de Mayo . It just so happened that this event happened on Cinco de Mayo.
Do you know that Cinco de Mayo is actually celebrated only in the United states and the city of Puebla, Mexico, where the Mexicans won the Battle of Puebla against the French in 1862? It’s not a national Mexican holiday—Mexican Independence Day, a national holiday and is September 16th. More people celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the United States than in Mexico.
The reason Americans celebrate the holiday is because of an ad campaign in 1989 by an importer of Mexican beers. Since then it’s gotten bigger and bigger. According to Nielsen in 2013 Americans bought more beer for Cinco de Mayo than they did for Super Bowl and St. Patrick’s Day the same year.
The original Mexicans were the Aztecs who did not call themselves Aztecs. The word Aztec comes from the Spanish word Azteca from the Aztec language word aztecatl, which means “person from Aztlan;” their mythical home. Huitzilopochtli (pronounced Weetz-ee-loh-POSHT-lee and meaning "Hummingbird on the Left") was one of the most important of the Aztec gods, the god of the sun, warfare, military conquest and sacrifice. Huitzilopochtli told the Azteca that they should change their name to Mexica, since they were his chosen people. He is claimed to have led the Mexica people from Aztlan into Central Mexico.
The Aztecs used two systems for counting time. The Xiuhpohualli was the natural solar 365-day calendar used to count the years; it followed the agricultural seasons. The year was separated into 18 months of 20 days each. The 5 extra days at the end of the year were set aside as a period of mourning and waiting considered unlucky days and called Nemontemi. The second system was the ritual calendar, a 260-day cycle used for divination. Every 52 years the two calendars would align, giving occasion for the great New Fire Ceremony before a new cycle started.
In the Aztec creation myths, all the gods had sacrificed themselves repeatedly to bring the world and humans into being. Thus, human sacrifice and blood offerings were necessary to pay the gods their due and to keep the natural world in balance. The Aztecs believed that if they failed to please the Gods for any reason, for example by stopping sacrifices the world would go black and Tzitzimitl would slay Huitzilopochtli and the rest of humanity. The Tzitzimimeh were associated with the stars that can be seen around the Sun during a solar eclipse. This was interpreted as the Tzitzimimeh attacking the sun and that during a solar eclipse, the Tzitzimimeh would descend to the earth and devour human beings. After this a catastrophic earthquake would shatter the world completely.
The Tzitzimimeh were also feared during other ominous periods, such as during the five unlucky days which marked an unstable period of the year count (the extra five days at the end of the Xiuhpohualli calendar), and during the New Fire Ceremony marking the beginning of a new calendar round (when the two calendars aligned every 52 years)—both of these periods were associated with the fear of change. Failure to properly celebrate the New Fire Ceremony could result in the end of the current epoch. During these periods human sacrifices were especially essential to keep the world in balance. Being sacrificed was usually considered an honor. Before the ceremonies there would be games sort of like the icebreakers at NoVAGO events to determine who should be sacrificed (besides enemy warriors). In these games, the FTF would be the first to lose their heads; what an honor! So game on! Who will win, Huitzilopochtli and humanity (on the left below) or the Tzitzimimeh (on the right below)?
Enough boring history; below are the coordinates for the container and “contents” that the Mexica left to appease their gods that survived the end of the epoch. Handle it carefully…do you really want to be FTF?
Rnhyqfruf {f?,np šn{rf,pt{ jxufhnt mö,rfI uzsyt hjwt rf,pt{ rf,pt{
Hnmzfyqfruf snslzst šn{lt?,p šn{lt?,p ufzxf lt?p rf,pt{ ujvzjñnyt snslzst sfif mö,rfI
This cache is available only from 7AM to sunset daily.
Congratulations to (in alphabetically order) dminimax, freddiecrs, & rufnredy for the FTF