Martin Xuana: Rabbit Mask Festival Woodcarving (LYWY)
Martin Xuana: Rabbit Mask Festival Woodcarving (LYWY)
A village rabbit dressed for the festival, gone to walk under his own moon. Martin Xuana stands him on small black boots, wraps him in a long red robe printed with blue crescents and yellow stars, and tucks a walking stick into his blocky wooden hands. The whiskers are real ixtle fiber. The face, cross-hatched grey with turquoise-lined ears, is finished with the seriousness of someone going to a very important party.
When the gods gathered at Teotihuacan to make the Fifth Sun, two of them volunteered to leap into the sacrificial fire and rise into the sky as the new light. Tecuciztecatl, proud and richly dressed, was supposed to go first, but four times he ran toward the flames and four times he turned back. Nanahuatzin, humble and covered in sores, threw himself in without hesitation. Shamed, Tecuciztecatl leaped in after. Both rose into the heavens as suns of equal brightness, but two suns burning together were too much. One of the gods picked up a rabbit and hurled it at Tecuciztecatl's face to dim him. He became the moon, and the rabbit's silhouette is still there if you look at the right time of month.
Martin's rabbit is wearing his own myth, robed in crescents and stars, off to celebrate the night that carries his face.
