Xipe Totec, meaning “Our Lord the Flayed One,” was an Aztec god of fertility, abundance, and agricultural renewal, often depicted wearing the flayed skin of a sacrificial victim, symbolizing death and rebirth.. National Museum of Antropology – Mexico [1152×2048]

The flayed skin represents the shedding of the old and the emergence of the new, mirroring the cycle of death and rebirth in nature, like the sprouting of new vegetation in the spring. During the annual festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli (Flaying of Men), priests would impersonate Xipe Totec by wearing the flayed skins of sacrificed war captives. This ritual involved the flaying of captives and took place during the second ritual month of the Aztec year, from March 6th to the 25th.