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Aztec priests would cut open the chests of those who were being sacrificed using obsidian blades that were razor sharp, and then they would offer the gods the victims’ hearts while they were still beating. After that, they hurled the lifeless bodies of the victims down the steep steps of the imposing Templo Mayor.
Apologetics and damage control were the two primary goals of the Aztec practice of offering human sacrifices to their gods. In addition to its religious significance, the Aztec human sacrifice also had an important political function.
During Aztec religious ceremonies, captives of battle were frequently sacrificed as human gifts to the gods. On top of the enormous Aztec temple-pyramids, religious rituals and sacrifices took place. The victim was laid out on an altar made of stone, and a priest used a knife made of stone to remove the victim’s still-beating heart from the body of the sacrifice victim.
The Aztecs held the belief that performing ritual sacrifices was a vital part of their religious practice, and that doing so would ensure that the sun would continue to rise and that harvests would continue to flourish. The Aztecs had a calendar with 365 days that was divided into eighteen months and based its holidays on agricultural practices as well as several deities.
According to Ross Hassig, who wrote the book ″Aztec Warfare,″ this figure is far higher than it actually was. According to Hassig, the event involved the sacrificial deaths of ″between 10,000 and 80,400 individuals.″ According to the more conservative estimate, there would be an average of 15 sacrifices each minute for the course of the four-day consecration.
According to the legends of the Aztec people, the historico-mythical monarch Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, who was claimed to have been created from a piece of jade, was the one who brought cocoa to the central region of Mexico.
There were many different kinds of blood sacrifices that were performed. Depending on the deity that needed to be appeased and the ritual that was being performed, human and animal victims were offered as sacrifices. Additionally, priests of certain gods were occasionally obliged to donate their own blood by mutilating themselves.
While you are studying how the Aztecs worshiped their gods, you may feel that these ceremonies seem a bit theatrical; yet, the Aztecs depended on the gods to perpetuate their existence day by day. The Aztecs thought that their gods were vital for the sun to rise and fall each day.
The military might of the Aztecs, the influence of their religion, and the structure of their tribute system contributed to the strength of their state. They created their own calendar with 18 months that each had 20 days, built enormous cities, pyramids, and temples, and established a farming method that they called chinampas that they used to cultivate crops on shallow lake bottoms.
An anthropologist from New York has proposed that the Aztecs didn’t just sacrifice humans atop their holy pyramids for religious reasons; rather, they did so because they were forced to consume people in order to achieve the necessary amount of protein in their diet.
During the time that they were in power, the Aztecs farmed vast tracts of land. Corn, beans, and squash were the three most important foods in their diet. They added chiles and tomatoes to these ingredients. They also gathered a species of crayfish-like critter called an acocil, which is common in Lake Texcoco, as well as a type of algae called spirulina, which they baked into cakes.
The Aztecs held the belief that their gods need human blood in order to remain alive and be powerful enough to ward off the forces of evil. As a result, human sacrifice played a significant part in their religion. Therefore, they would periodically sacrifice large numbers of people in order to appease their gods.
A few days later, her father made his way to Tenochtitlan, which was then the capital city of the Aztec empire. He anticipated having a conversation over the dowry that his daughter would bring to the marriage of the emperor’s son. After that, he learned that his daughter and several of her servants had been killed as a sacrifice to appease the appetites of the numerous Aztec gods.
It is often believed that Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Xipe Totec are the four primary gods of the Aztec religion.