Rituals of The Aztecs
Aztec ritual was often a reenactment of a mythical event which at once served to remind the Aztecs of their myths but also served to preserve the world by repeating the important events of the creation.
The Aztec people had a strong belief that in order to sustain the even management of The Universe they needed to offer the blood of a human to the Gods. Their religion was centred simply around pleasing their Gods and in return receiving awards. Aztecs believed that without them offering blood the sun would not rise each day. It was a very horrific ritual where the human that was sacrificing would be taken to the top of the temple and laid backwards over a stone by four priests. A fifth priest would use a ceremonial knife (made of flint stone) and slice open the abdomen of the sacrifice, through their exposed diaphragm. One of the priests would then take hold of the heart and tear it out from the body, still beating and place it in the bowl that was held by a statue of the honoured God. As the ritual was carried out, the audience of the ceremony would begin piercing, stabbing and bleeding themselves as a means of auto-sacrifice! This meant that further worship to the Gods was obtained. After the sacrifice the body would be carelessly thrown down the temple stands and land at the base of the pyramid. This might seem like a rather extreme ritual but it was very important to The Aztecs and was one of their most practiced and strongest rituals. They were one of the first religious cultures and organised civilisations to practice these rituals. Human sacrifice was the only ritual that was performed on a day-to-day basis by The Aztecs.
One of the most significant rituals to The Aztec’s was the impersonation of deities. Specially elected individuals (very often Priests) would be costumes and dressed up to represent a specific deity. A human being with the honourable charge of impersonating a God was known as ‘’Ixiptlatli’’ and was regarded as a definite physical depiction of the God until the inevitable end when the God’s likeness had to be killed as the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ under festivities and great circumstances. This was additionally a very important and established ritual by The Aztecs, but was not performed everyday.
This episode of 'Ancient Innovations' below helps us to gain a further understanding of the great Ancient Rituals of The Aztecs. Please click the video below to find out more about the intriguing and sometimes horrific rituals of The Aztec religion:
Aztec ritual was often a reenactment of a mythical event which at once served to remind the Aztecs of their myths but also served to preserve the world by repeating the important events of the creation.
The Aztec people had a strong belief that in order to sustain the even management of The Universe they needed to offer the blood of a human to the Gods. Their religion was centred simply around pleasing their Gods and in return receiving awards. Aztecs believed that without them offering blood the sun would not rise each day. It was a very horrific ritual where the human that was sacrificing would be taken to the top of the temple and laid backwards over a stone by four priests. A fifth priest would use a ceremonial knife (made of flint stone) and slice open the abdomen of the sacrifice, through their exposed diaphragm. One of the priests would then take hold of the heart and tear it out from the body, still beating and place it in the bowl that was held by a statue of the honoured God. As the ritual was carried out, the audience of the ceremony would begin piercing, stabbing and bleeding themselves as a means of auto-sacrifice! This meant that further worship to the Gods was obtained. After the sacrifice the body would be carelessly thrown down the temple stands and land at the base of the pyramid. This might seem like a rather extreme ritual but it was very important to The Aztecs and was one of their most practiced and strongest rituals. They were one of the first religious cultures and organised civilisations to practice these rituals. Human sacrifice was the only ritual that was performed on a day-to-day basis by The Aztecs.
One of the most significant rituals to The Aztec’s was the impersonation of deities. Specially elected individuals (very often Priests) would be costumes and dressed up to represent a specific deity. A human being with the honourable charge of impersonating a God was known as ‘’Ixiptlatli’’ and was regarded as a definite physical depiction of the God until the inevitable end when the God’s likeness had to be killed as the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ under festivities and great circumstances. This was additionally a very important and established ritual by The Aztecs, but was not performed everyday.
This episode of 'Ancient Innovations' below helps us to gain a further understanding of the great Ancient Rituals of The Aztecs. Please click the video below to find out more about the intriguing and sometimes horrific rituals of The Aztec religion: