Since the indigenous people of Mexico, the Aztecs were the ones who most worshiped their Gods. At the time of the arrival of the Spanish, the Aztec religion was a synthesis of beliefs and cults. The agrarian gods of the agricultural peoples of central Mexico merged with the astral gods of the barbarian warrior peoples.
One of the types of Human Sacrifice Ceremony was:That the bravest of prisoners of war were sacrificed each year. On the day of his death, he played the flute in the procession. Priests and four beautiful girls accompanied him.
Culture
Although they were cultural heirs of other great civilizations, the Aztecs managed to develop very high techniques and knowledge.
Architecture excelled in the construction of monuments, dikes and aqueducts. In the art of goldsmithing they were masters. The Aztec priests, astronomers and astrologers had as one of their duties the contemplation of the sky and the study of the movement of the stars.
The books were very important, the colleges of the nobles and the palaces had voluminous libraries. writing was a mixture of ideography and phonetic writing, as some characters defeated ideas and objects, and others designated sounds. The calendar
In the Calendar are represented the cosmogony and chronology of the ancient Mexicans. In the center stands out the bloodthirsty Sun (God Tonatiuh) with the sign nauiollin, symbol of our universe. The four arms of the Saint Andrew's Cross, corresponding to the sign Ollin, contain the symbols of the four ancient Suns. Around these hieroglyphs, concentric circles show the signs of the days (see below), the years, represented by the xiuitl glyph composed of 5 points, 4 in a cross and another in the middle and, finally, two "turquoise serpents", this that is, the two 52-year periods that correspond to the 65 years of the planet Venus, the two constituting the 104-year cycle called ueuetiliztli ("old age").
The Aztecs had precise knowledge about the length of the year, the determination of the solstices, the phases and eclipses of the Moon, the revolution of the planet Venus and various constellations, such as the Pleiades and the Great Bear. They paid special attention to the measurement of time, in an arithmetic based on the number 20.
At the end of each period of 52 years, the "Fogo Novo" was lit on top of the mountain of Uixachtecatl. This was called the "league of the years". It was celebrated as a true mystical "New Year" with sacrifices, dances, renovation of household utensils, etc.
The Aztec Borbonic Codex shows the gods Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, the latter in his green serpent form devouring a man. The illustration shows the importance of human sacrifice in Aztec religion, as well as the legend that Quetzalcoatl, the god exiled by Tezcatlipoca, would return to rule the Aztecs.
Aztec Civilization
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