Gods
The Aztecs were very superstitious and had many Gods. They believed that their world was constantly threatened by catastrophe. Great temples were built to honour these Gods and human sacrifice took place as a way of worshipping them. They believed that their 'good' Gods should be kept strong to keep away the 'bad' Gods. They thought that human sacrifice would keep the Gods strong.
Their most important God was Huitzilopochtli. He was their sun God, but they also used him as their God of war.
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Another of their Gods was Tezcatlipoca. He was the God of the Great Bear constellation and of the night sky. Tezcatlipoca's animal disguise, was the jaguar, the spotted skin of which was compared to the starry sky. He was usually drawn with a stripe of black paint across his face and an obsidian (black glass) mirror in place of one of his feet. ( His name means 'smoking mirror') In it he saw everything, he knew all the deeds and thoughts of men. He was said to appear at crossroads at night to challenge warriors.
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Human Sacrifice
Sacrifice was one of the main events in the Aztec religion. Priests made human sacrifices to make the Sun God happy. Aztecs fought in wars to capture men to sacrifice. On God's Feast Day, they killed their slaves for the Gods. Human sacrifices were offerings to the sun and earth so that food would grow. On the night of the O'Nothing Days, priests would dress up as the supreme Gods and wait on top of an extinct volcano. When the evening star reached the top of the sky, the priests would stretch the captive over an altar, or a special stone. Then the high priest would light a fire on the victim's heart and tear it out. After the heart is cut, the priest would hold the heart to the sun, then put it in a sacred dish. Finally, the bodies were rolled down the temple stairs to lie in a heap. Even after that, most victims were happy to die because they believed that they would go straight to heaven. Back to top
