Religion In The Aztec Empire

Religion in the Aztec Empire:

The Aztecs had a polytheistic religion with the worship of a pantheon of all powerful gods. The religion they followed permeated into every aspect of their lives. Everyone from the lowest peasants and commoners to the most royal of emperors observed this religion very seriously. Priests presided over rituals and sacrifices, and were supposed to be celibate and refrain from alcohol. It had a large and ever increasing pantheon. The three main deities in this mesoamerican religion were Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. They believed that there were infinitely many other gods underneath these main three. The Aztecs would often adopt deities of other geographic regions or peoples into their own religious

The other was the practice of ritual human sacrifice. Human sacrifice was a huge part of Aztec life. Specifically, the sacrifice of living hearts was thought to be especially pleasing to the gods. Usually the sacrifices were captives whom were captured while raiding other nearby city states. The bravest of those captives were considered to be the most pleasing to the gods when sacrificed. At the height of the empire many wars were fought just to gain captives for the purpose of sacrifice. They also held a great amount of importance on the stars and celestial patterns - they were interpreted as omens. The Aztecs were huge on ceremony as part of their religion. One of the most prominent of these was the New Fire Ceremony. Every fifty-two years the Aztecs would hold a ceremony called the New Fire Ceremony, or the Binding of Years Ceremony. In the native Aztec tongue this would have been Toxhiuhmolpilia. The timing of the ceremony and the number 52 were significant. It was the exact coinciding point of the first days of the two Aztec calendars - the ancient Mesoamerican tonalpohualli 260-day cycle