Around the year 1500, as the sun slipped behind the mountains, Tenochtitlan began to breathe more slowly. Somewhere in the city a nobleman who had spent the whole day being important was finally allowed to be slow. How did an Aztec noble let go of his day? Mostly with small, deliberate rituals: steam, a cup of foaming cacao, flowers, drums, a garden and a long look at the stars.
The short answer
An Aztec noble relaxed by crossing a clear line between public duty and home. He took off his sandals and jewelry, washed, and sat in a steam bath called a temazcalli. Then came bitter, foamy cacao, flowers, drums, flutes and poetry, garden water and copal smoke. Spanish eyewitnesses, the Florentine Codex and a 1552 herbal describe many of these habits. The nobleman in our film is an illustrative reconstruction, not a named person.
This article follows our documentary, How to Relax Like an Aztec Noble, a slow history for winding down. It keeps the film’s order and says where historians are unsure.
Key dates at a glance
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1325 | Traditional founding date of Tenochtitlan, where the Mexica saw an eagle on a cactus |
| 1402 | Nezahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Texcoco, is born |
| 1431–1472 | Nezahualcoyotl rules Texcoco until his death |
| 1507 | The last New Fire ceremony, in the reign of Moctezuma II |
| 1519 | The Spanish arrive and stay a night at Iztapalapa |
| 1521 | Tenochtitlan falls after a long siege |
| 1552 | The Badianus herbal is finished at a college in Tlatelolco |
A city that slowed down at dusk
Tenochtitlan stood on an island in a shallow lake, joined to the shore by three causeways. Many historians estimate some 200,000 people lived there. Canals served as streets, chinampas (raised garden beds of lake mud) ringed the island, and the great market at Tlatelolco folded its mats at nightfall. Light came from hearths and ocote pine torches, not wax candles. The nobles, the pipiltin, came home from days of judging and administering tribute, spent speaking in formal, politeness-laden language that could finally be put down like a heavy bag.
The threshold: sandals, ornaments and clean hands
The first ritual was tiny. Sandals were a sign of status, and many of the finest were reserved for noblemen, yet the same men went barefoot before their ruler and in temples. At home, barefoot meant comfort. Out came the heavy ear spools and necklaces, the cotton cape (tilmatli) gave way to something softer, and a servant brought water to wash hands and face. It works for the same reason that changing out of work clothes does.
Noble houses were built around open courtyards, with whitewashed walls and flat roofs used almost as an extra room. Furniture was sparse: woven mats (petlatl) to sit and sleep on, and reed seats and chests.
The house of heat: the temazcal
In the garden stood the temazcalli, the “house of heat”, a low steam bath of stone or adobe found in households from commoners to the palace. A servant fired the outside box for an hour or more, heating porous volcanic stones inside. Bathers crawled in through a low door while an attendant splashed water on the stones and fanned the steam with bundles of leafy branches. The bath eased muscles after hard work and ball games, treated illness, and mattered around childbirth, guided by midwives. Afterwards came a rinse, soft cotton, rest and perhaps atolli, a smooth maize drink. Bernal Díaz wrote that Moctezuma bathed every day in the afternoon, which struck the Spanish as remarkable. Churchmen later discouraged the baths, but the temazcal is still used in Mexico today.
The slow cup, the evening table and a game of patolli
Cacao does not grow on the cool highland, so beans arrived as tribute or in merchants’ packs from the hot lowlands, and also served as money. The drink, cacahuatl, was made from roasted beans ground on a metate, mixed with water and flavourings such as vanilla (tlilxochitl), chili or honey. The prized part was the foam, made by pouring the liquid between vessels from a height. It was bitter and earthy, nothing like modern hot chocolate, and Díaz wrote that Moctezuma was served it in gold cups. Nobles preferred it to pulque, since drunkenness was harshly punished. (See cacao as ancient money.)
Supper was lighter: tortillas, beans, squash, chili sauces and turkey, with venison, axolotls and a green cake of lake algae for nobles. Díaz described Moctezuma’s meals: hundreds of plates to choose from, a gilded screen, and entertainers. Afterwards families played patolli, a cross-shaped board game with marked black beans, and a grandmother posed riddles like those Sahagún’s Nahua collaborators wrote down, one of which turns the starry sky into a blue bowl of toasted popcorn.
Flower and song: drums, poets and a king’s verse
In Nahuatl, in xochitl in cuicatl, “the flower, the song”, meant poetry and the most beautiful things a person could make. The evening ensemble included the upright huehuetl drum, the two-toned teponaztli, rattles, clay flutes and conch shells. We do not know exactly how it sounded, since it was not written down in a form we can read. Each neighbourhood had a house of song, the cuicacalli, where young people learned dances.
Nezahualcoyotl ruled Texcoco from 1431 to 1472 and was remembered as lawgiver, engineer, garden builder and poet. Scholars debate which poems he really wrote, and the collected Cantares Mexicanos were set down after the conquest. One says even jade cracks and quetzal feathers tear: we are here only a little while. Another, attributed to Tochihuitzin, says we came only to sleep, only to dream. Life’s brevity, these poets suggest, is the reason to enjoy flowers and songs.
Gardens: stone baths, water birds and a house of birds
Nezahualcoyotl reshaped a whole hill, Texcotzinco, carving stairs, terraces and pools into the rock, fed by an aqueduct several miles long. Three round rock-cut baths survive. His descendant Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, our main source for its splendour, may have embellished, but the carved baths are real.
Hernán Cortés described the gardens of Cuitláhuac, Moctezuma’s brother, at Iztapalapa: a great square pool where water birds almost covered the surface. At Huaxtepec, expanded by Moctezuma I, gardeners grew cacao and vanilla from the hot lands. In Tenochtitlan Moctezuma kept a totocalli, a house of birds with ten pools and galleries to look down from. Flowers were a language of their own, from marigolds (cempoalxochitl) to the magnolia, the heart flower. Some sources describe smelling a flower from the side, leaving its centre to the gods.
A remedy for weariness: herbs, copal and the middle way
In 1552 the Nahua healer Martín de la Cruz and the translator Juan Badiano finished an illustrated herbal in Tlatelolco, today called the Badianus Manuscript. It describes about 250 plants. According to modern summaries, it offers a remedy for the fatigue of those who administer government, which among other things prescribes a bath perfumed with fragrant flowers, including cacao blossoms. Copal, a pale resin, burned in every temple and home. The elders’ advice was moderation: do not eat too much or starve, do not oversleep or stay up all night, walk neither too fast nor too slowly.
On the lake: the rabbit in the moon and the marketplace of stars
The evening ended on the water, in a dugout canoe among reeds and fishing lights, and on the roof under the stars. The Florentine Codex records why the moon carries a rabbit: the humble Nanahuatzin leapt into the fire and became the sun, while the proud Tecuciztecatl hesitated, then followed and rose as the moon; a god threw a rabbit in his face to dim him.
The Aztecs called the Pleiades Tianquiztli, “the marketplace”. Every 52 years, when the two calendars realigned, the New Fire ceremony put out every fire while priests waited on the Hill of the Star for the Pleiades to cross the middle of the sky, then drilled a new flame. The ceremony included human sacrifice, which the film does not hide. The last was in 1507.
Watch the documentary
The whole evening, from rooftop to sleeping room, is told slowly in our two-hour film.
What is documented, and what is reconstruction
Documented: the eyewitness accounts of Díaz and Cortés, the Florentine Codex, the Badianus herbal, the baths at Texcotzinco and the poems. Estimates and debates: the city’s population and which poems Nezahualcoyotl wrote. Reconstruction: the lord, his family and the canoe ride. Tenochtitlan fell in 1521, but the temazcal, copal, marigolds, chocolate and the Nahuatl language, spoken today by more than 1.5 million people, survived.
Now watch it
Put on the film, let your shoulders drop, and spend a long evening in the Aztec world. Subscribe to History Candle for the next one.
Frequently asked questions
How did Aztec nobles relax in the evening?
They marked the end of the day with small rituals: removing sandals and jewelry, a steam bath, a slow cup of foaming cacao, flowers, music and poetry, time in a garden and a look at the stars. Sources include Bernal Díaz, Hernán Cortés and the Florentine Codex.
What was a temazcal?
A temazcalli, the “house of heat”, was a low steam bath of stone or adobe beside the house, heated by a fire and volcanic stones. It was used for relaxation, after hard work, for illness and around childbirth, and temazcales are still used in Mexico today.
What did the Aztec chocolate drink taste like?
It was dark, bitter and earthy rather than sweet, flavoured with vanilla, chili or honey and topped with a thick foam made by pouring it from a height. Bernal Díaz wrote that Moctezuma was served it in gold cups.
What does “flower and song” mean in Nahuatl?
In xochitl in cuicatl means “the flower, the song”, and stood for poetry and the most beautiful things a person could create. Such poems, some attributed to Nezahualcoyotl, survive in the Cantares Mexicanos, though scholars debate how much they were altered.
What is the Badianus Manuscript?
It is an illustrated herbal finished in 1552 at a college in Tlatelolco by the Nahua healer Martín de la Cruz, translated into Latin by Juan Badiano, describing about 250 plants. Modern summaries say it includes a remedy for the fatigue of those who administer government.
Was the nobleman in the documentary a real person?
No. The lord, his family and the canoe ride are an illustrative reconstruction built from historical sources, and the film says where historians are unsure.
Sources and further reading
- Bernal Díaz del Castillo, on the meals of Moctezuma (excerpts). hemi.nyu.edu
- Hernán Cortés, Second Letter (Iztapalapa gardens, house of birds). umich.edu
- Bernardino de Sahagún, compiled with Nahua scholars, Florentine Codex (Book 7 on the sun and moon; Book 6 riddles).
- Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (Badianus Manuscript, 1552). en.wikipedia.org
- Dillinger, T. L. et al. (2000). “Food of the Gods: Cure for Humanity? A Cultural History of the Medicinal and Ritual Use of Chocolate”. Journal of Nutrition. sciencedirect.com
- Nezahualcoyotl (tlatoani). en.wikipedia.org
- Texcotzingo. en.wikipedia.org
- Aztec pleasure gardens (Huaxtepec, Tetzcotzinco, Iztapalapa, Chapultepec), Mexicolore. mexicolore.co.uk
- Temazcal. en.wikipedia.org
- Aztec cuisine (cacahuatl, foam, flavourings, cacao as currency, pulque rules). en.wikipedia.org
- Aztec clothing (tilmatli, maxtlatl, huipil, sandals, sumptuary rules). en.wikipedia.org
- Patolli. en.wikipedia.org
- Aztec riddles (zazanilli), Mexicolore. mexicolore.co.uk
- New Fire ceremony. en.wikipedia.org
- Rabbit in the moon, Mexicolore. mexicolore.co.uk
- Tianquiztli (Pleiades). windows2universe.org
- Also named in the narration: Diego Durán, Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl and the Cantares Mexicanos.
