Why Are Gods Important In Aztec Religion?

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1.0: the Aztecs believed that humans needed gods to survive. The gods could reward them, by bringing good crops for harvest, or punish them by sending earthquakes and floods. For these reasons, pleasing and honoring the gods was crucial in Aztec religion.

1.1: They adopted gods from other Mesoamerican groups such as Tlaloc, the rain god, and Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent. However, the most important was Huitzilopochtli, the sun god and god of war. For this reason, the Aztecs called themselves the "people of the sun".

1.2: The sun was said to be a warrior who fought each night against the forces of darkness, and the survival of the universe depended upon the sun winning these battles. Huitzilopochtli is said to be an incarnation

For example, each ceremony was preceded by a period of four or a multiple of four days of ritual fasting. These fastings required the participants eat only one unseasoned (no chili or salt) meal per day, to abstain from sex and bathing.

The ceremonies themselves involved feasting, dancing, processions and the singing of ritual songs accompanied by music from drums, rattles, flutes, whistles, shells, rasps and wooden instruments.

2.2: Aztec life was richly imbued with religious symbolism and rituals. Every month had at least one major religious ceremony honoring a god or gods. Most of these ceremonies were related to the agricultural season, the sowing of corn or the harvest of fruits. In almost all major ceremonies, an individual was chosen to impersonate the god, dressing as him or her. This person would be coddled as if he was the god until the time of sacrifice.

3.0: Aztecs believed that the way of keeping the sun strong for his battles against darkness was to offer him nourishment in the form of blood. Therefore, sacrifice was very important to their beliefs. They distinguished between two types of sacrifice: those involving humans and those involving animals or other