Post by Joanna on Oct 15, 2013 21:38:30 GMT -5
Rituals and Sacrifices of the Aztecs
The Aztecs were an ethnic group of people who supposedly originated from a mythical place called Aztlan. The main source of our knowledge about the history and culture of the Aztecs is through written descriptions dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries from eyewitness accounts by Spanish conquistadors, archeological discoveries and paper codices. The Aztecs practiced elaborate mythical traditions and rituals and their knowledge of architecture and the arts was astounding. The Aztec mythology and gods are vast and fascinating topics and there is a lot of written material about them.
Facts about Aztec Rituals
• As a ritual, the Aztec priests painted themselves black to let the people know they were true priests.
• Another unusual ritual was that whenever the Aztecs captured a new city, they added all the gods of the city to their religion, so their religion frequently welcomed new members.
• The Aztecs followed a strange ritual of burying dead family members inside their homes.
• Another strange ritual involved specially-elected people who dressed up and impersonated a specific deity after which they were killed and sacrificed to that particular god.
• They believed the gods wanted sacrifices in return for favors, so the sacrifice often depended on the favor requested. For really important favors, requesters often cut off their own ears, tongues and sometimes even their genitals.
• When a female child was born, she was adorned with a pot, spindle and washing stone while the priest chanted: “Your role will be that of wife and mother to future warriors,” to her and the midwife who assisted at her birth in order to summon the goddess Yoalticitl to bless her.
• When a boy was born, he was adorned with a bow, arrows and a miniature chest shield while the priest chanted: “You have come into this world to give the sun, the blood of his enemies to drink and to feed the soil with their bodies,” after which the midwife raised him toward the sun four times.
• The ritual of sacrificing humans stemmed from the Aztecs’ belief that their gods would abandon them if they did not get “precious water,” i.e., blood, from their people.
• Human sacrifice stemmed from the belief that the three main Aztec gods – Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca – sacrificed themselves and offered their hearts to the sun. Accordingly, the Aztecs believed if they failed to perform the sacrifices, the sun would not rise the next day.
• Women were allowed to become priests as long as they didn’t get married and they could leave the priesthood whenever they wished.
• If a poor person dressed in the manner of the rich and affluent, he was punished by having his house demolished. If he were found guilty of such a transgression a second time, he was executed.
Facts about Aztec Sacrifice
• The Aztecs believed people who were sacrificed to the gods, women who died during labor and the men who were killed in battle or war became companions of the sun for five years, after which they were reborn as hummingbirds or butterflies.
• The priests chose suitable people after which they would eat the flesh and drink some of the blood of the sacrificial victim.
• Once a victim was chosen, he was taken to the altar in the temple or pyramid where the priest would cut his flesh while he was still alive and removed his heart and burned it. The corpse would ten be thrown from the pyramid. If the victim were brave, he was considered worthy of respect and instead of having his body thrown from the pyramid, his corpse would be carried down the steps. The only exception was that when the sacrifice was to Huehueteotl – god of food, cold, warmth and death – wherein the victim was first thrown into the fire alive and removed just prior to death to have his heart removed and burned.
• The Aztecs believed that Tlaloc, God of Rain, loved having children sacrificed to him in the spring so that he could use the tears of the victim’s family and friends to provide rain for the growing crops.
• In a unique ceremony, virgins were sacrificed to the goddess Xochipilli, wherein their legs were crossed before their hearts were cut out.
• In another bizarre ritual, a woman representing Xochiquetzal was killed after which a priest wore her skin and sat in the temple while craftsmen dressed as animals danced around him.
• Whenever the Aztecs ran out of food, they would eat the meat from the dead bodies of enemies killed in battle, but they never ate their dead comrades.
• Another strange ritual took place in the fifth month wherein the most handsome man in the land was allowed to have his way with four girls for one night. The next morning, the girls would dance their way to the sacrificial stone where they and the man were sacrificed to the god Tezcatlipoca.
Sources: The Aztecs of the New World; and History of the Aztecs.