'Day of Ill Omen' Aztec ceramic carving - A glyph from the Mayan Long Count Calendar, a day ruled over by Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror.
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This calendar glyph represents a flint knife (Tecpatl), which was said to rule over both specific days and weeks of the Mayan calendars. These were thought to be times of particularly ill omen, ruled over by the chaotic gods Smoking Mirror and Jade Turkey.
Ce Tecpatl was the birth date of the Aztec wargod, Huitzilopochtli, and on this day a great festival was held in his honour, presumably involving sacrifices dispatched with the Tecpatl knife. Also on this day in AD 1168, the Aztec people set out from their ancestral home to migrate to the area now known as Mexico City under the guidance of their god of war.
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