The 400 Rabbits

Our bar gets a lot of attention because of its name: 400 Rabbits

The legend of the rabbits goes back many many years to when the gods still walked among us… In the sky there ruled a goddess called Tzinzimitl, the goddess of night and fear, symbolizing death and evil, often depicted as a skeletal figure, who enjoyed playing with us humans by taking away all sunlight, leaving us to suffer in darkness.

All the earth gods were furious as their crops and humans were dying because of her and so the brave Queztacoatl volunteered to travel to the heavens and defeat the evil Tzinzimitl to once again have sunlight flood the earth. He was in fact the feathered serpent who was the god of fertility and the patron of arts, he was also the most human-loving god back then!

On his journeys he fell in love with Tzizimitl’s granddaughter called Mayahuel only to forget his important mission and travelled instead back to earth, where they married and lived happily for a while, bearing.

With her granddaughter stolen from her she was of course furious (and I wouldn’t recommend enraging an evil goddess…), so she began destroying the world, which was of course still covered in darkness.

After running from Tzinzimitl for a long time Queztacoatl decided to transform both Mayahuel and himself into trees, hoping that they could finally rest next to each other. They took comfort in the fact that when the wind blew the leaves on their branches would touch and so they would always be together.

However their disguise couldn’t fool any grandmother bent on revenge!

Tzinzimitl struck down Mayahuel with lightning leaving a pile of ashes. Stricken with horrendoes grief Queztacoatl returned to the heavens and finally was able to destroy the evil woman and so finally the earth was flooded with light once more. Of course he was unable to celebrate the return of sunlight, as he has lost his beloved Mayahuel.

The other gods felt pity for him and decided that saving the earth and all its inhabitants was certainly worth a gift. So, they planted, in the place where Mayahuel was struck down, her ashes.  Slowly a beautiful and noble plant began to grow with the tears of Queztacoatl watering it. This majestic plant was in fact an agave!

 

Where do the bunnies come in you ask?

During the battle between earth and heaven that took place the newlyweds bore many many children, 400 in fact!! (in Aztec times the number used to represent ‘infinite’ was 400). They were born in the shape of rabbits and were breast fed by the beautiful Mayahuel with her 400 breasts (yes indeed). Only, instead of regular breast milk Mayahuel produced pulque, which is the fermented sap of the agave. Their children had a great responsibility to guard and protect all agave spirits in the world, however instead, they decided to drink them all, being already very tipsy from their mother’s milk.

 

According to the myth, when you drink an agave spirit one of the many rabbits will inhibit your body and party with you for a while. Have you ever felt livelier or happier when drinking Tequila? Yes, I thought so and I couldn’t agree more!!