To the Aztec, life could continue only through the Gods. They perpetuated the Aztec race. They determined begetting and growth. When they were angry, they brought misfortune.The gods needed the collaboration of man. They could not subsist without nourishment. The creative force and nourishment of the gods was maintained only through the magic substance, the chakhihuatl of life, found in the blood, but particularly in the human heart.
Moreover, the most powerful of all the gods, the Sun, was a result of a sacrifice, the decision of the gods to change Huitzilopochi into the sun. In the act of creation, the sun fought a duel over the moon and the stars. Each day, the divine combat began anew.Victory was only possible if the sun was carried by the spirits of warriors who died in combat or on the sacrificial stone, or the spirits of women who died in childbirth. He who was sacrificed gave life to the sun.For that reason, war was a form of worship, having as its purpose the capture of victims for sacrifice. The beginning of war was accompanied by a ritual where weapons and battle garments were dedicated and sent to the enemy as a declaration of war.Paradise was reserved for those who nourished the sun. Tonatiuhichan, the eastern
Paradise, was reserved for sacrificial victims and for warriors who died in combat.
The Western Paradise was the abode of mothers who died in childbirth.

The brutal sacrifices of human captives, performed repeatedly for routine occasions, were regarded as a kindness and a public service. The priests who tore life from the bodies of their victims were actually "virtuous, humble, and peaceful; considerate, prudent, loving and compassionate; a friend to all and devout to their gods.

THE DRAMATIC STRUCTURE OF THE MONTHLY FESTIVALS

 It might be said that the Aztec Festivals were conducted in three parts which we could call "the Incarnation," "The Sacrifice," and the "Epiphany." Sometimes, added to this would be a kind of an "Agon" where a struggle was preliminary to the sacrifice.

The "Incarnation" starts with the dedication or blessing of the sacrificial victims. The victims were costumed and made-up or painted to symbolize the god for whom the sacrifice was intended. Libation was made. Then for a period of time, sometimes brief, sometimes eight days, and in one case a year, feasting, drinking, singing and dancing paid homage to the incarnation of the victim.30 At most festivals, however, the prisoner was simply dressed and paraded through the streets. Impersonations at various times represented various aspects of the myth. The crowd followed the costumed procession, singing, calling out, and dancing.

The "Sacrifice" began when the procession arrived at the temple steps. The sacrificial victims, representing the gods themselves, ascended the steps in various ways. Sometimes they were carried up in litters. Sometimes they were carried on the shoulders of the priests. In other sacrifices, depending on the amount of cooperation attained from the victim, they were dragged fighting and struggling or fainting with fear. At other times, they marched proudly up the three flights. In the case of the ceremony, Toxcatl, the victim voluntarily performed ritualistic flute-playing, symbolically breaking his flute as he ascended the steps.

There were several kinds of sacrifices. The standard offering was the presentation of the victim's heart. The number of priests involved varied from four to six. Taking the victim by his arms and legs, they bent him over backwards on the sacrificial stone, the techcatl, bowing up his chest. The sacrificing priest took the flint sacrificial knife, and ripped open a hole in the proper place to reach in and tear the beating heart from the victim's body. The most important part of the ceremony, however, was the dedication of the magic substance in the blood and the heart. The heart, presented to the sun, was placed in a special container. Sometimes it was burned. At the ceremony to the rain gods, the hearts of the victims were splashed into lake Texcoco.

Perhaps to distribute the magic nourishing substance in the blood, perhaps to display the body, the corpse was rolled down the temple steps.

Victims were sacrificed in other ways. The young girls representing the young maize goddess were decapitated. In the ceremonies to the god of fire, the victims were scorched before being sacrificed. In part of the ceremony to Xipe totec, victims were tied to a scaffold and pierced with spears and arrows, allowing the blood to spill upon the ground which absorbed its magic substance. A gladatorial sacrifice took place for the god of rain as well as for the god of war. Eminent enemy warriors were tethered to a stone, given dummy weapons, and engaged in duels with a succession of adversaries until they were slain or exhausted; then they were sacrificed.

At the bottom of the steps began the ceremonies of the "Epiphany." The bodies of the god impersonators were symbolically reincarnated in various ways. The most common way was dismemberment and cannibalism. The head was severed and placed in the skull rack.

 The flesh, especially the strong arms, legs, and thighs, were stewed with ears of corn. Those responsible for the victim-his captors-and those who presented him for sacrifice-chiefs, dignitaries and their families-ceremoniously ate the corn and the flesh. They believed that the victims were an incarnation of the gods. By eating their flesh, they absorbed the virtues of the gods.

In the case of the ceremonies to the god Xipe totec, and to the goddess Tlazolteol, the skin of the victim was flayed from the sacrificed body before the flesh was eaten. In these ceremonies, the skin was worn by chosen young men who then became the reincarnation of the god or goddess. Those representing Xipe wore the skin for twenty days and only after depositing the hardened, decaying costume in caves could they undergo ceremonial washing.

Part of the final feasting included ritualistic drunkenness,mock battles, parades and offering of flowers, games, monster dances, teasing and beating of women, and various other representations.

MONTHLY SACRIFICES

 The first, fourth, sixth, and sixteenth months were dedicated to the rain gods. Children, chosen because they had a circling double crown of hair, symbolizing whirlpools, were costumed as the rain gods, carried in a litter weeping to the sacrifice. The more they cried about their coming death, the more rain would fall. The rain gods were kind. They made the corn grow. But when angered they could unleash lightning and cause drought or flood.

In the second month, the complex ceremony to Xipe totec, "Our Lord the Flayed One," began, to extend into the third month. Xipe, the red Tezcatlipoca, god of spring, of jewelers, and of sickness, represented the death of winter and the rejuvenation of spring. He also represented victory over illness, deformity and skin disease. Many men were flayed, and many warriors wearing the skins impersonated Xipe and conducted ceremonial singing throughout the night for a whole month. This was also the month of the scaffold sacrifice, the "shooting to death with arrows." Representing the male and female forces that perpetuated all life, a girl was sacrificed at the altar and a man was tied to a scaffold and shot with arrows, his blood spilling the magic fluid on the ground.

The fifth month was noteworthy for its extended impersonation and ritual. A special prisoner, chosen for his handsome appearance, was required to represent Tezcatlipoca, god of night, evil, and misery. He was a patron of sorcerers and warriors, whose fetish was the flint knife. Given a year's instruction in gracious and noble manners, and in the playing of the clay flute, he had a fine entourage who treated him as the god incarnate. In the last month before the ceremony he was arrayed in battle dress an(d married to four wives representing the goddesses of providence. For a month he lived in connubial bliss. Then his wives and entourage left him. Four pages kept vigil. On the day of the sacrifice he ascendedl the steps alone, breaking his flutes as he moved upwards. Before the sacrifice, he was deprived of the last of his fine costumes, and, naked, his heart was torn out.

In four of the months, goddesses were impersonated, and women were sacrificed. The seventh month honored the goddess of salt, the eighth honored Xilonen, the goddess of tender corn, the eleventh honored the mother of gods, and the seventeenth honored "our mother" Tonan.

 The ninth, fourteenth, and fifteenth months were dedicated to the Sun God, Huitzlopachtli, the god of war. Animals and weapons were blessed. A rhythmic march and a snake dance were also featured. In the ninth month the festival ended with an offering of flowers. In the fourteenth month the god Mixcoateopan and his goddess consort were sacrificed. The fifteenth month featured a mock battle.

The tenth, twelfth, and eighteenth months were dedicated to the fire god Xiuhtectuli, or his aspect Huehueteol "the old god," the Aztec god of fire. To him, in these months, many slaves were scorched and sacrificed. A partial anesthetic was used, and the victims were thrown into the flames, struggling, until their skin blistered and peeled. They were fished out with hooks, still alive, and sacrificed.

After the fire sacrifice an effigy was made. A tall tree was chosen and stripped of its branches. Properly placed, the effigy was tied at the top, ropes extending from it. At a signal all the youths rushed forward and competed in climbing to the top where the image had been placed. The first to reach it broke the image, made from an edible paste, and flung the pieces to the crowd to be eaten. When the victor descended, he was honored and paraded like a hero.

Effigies were also eaten in the thirteenth and sixteenth months. In the ceremony to Chalchiuhtli, the water goddess, an image on a frame was carried in the parade prior to the sacrifice.

Games were also associated with the gods. A kind of soccer-basketball game was a religious performance and the ball court was a kind of temple. The Volador was also a type of agricultural magic to promote the growth of crops. Four men, dressed as bird gods, representedl the four winds. Using ropes attached to a frame at the top of a high pole, the unwinding of the ropes would cause the men to "fly" around the pole.

The last five days of the year, the Nemontemi, were days unlucky for ceremonies. Without care, pregnant women would change to wild animals and sleeping children would turn into rats.

IMPERSONATIONS

 All the ceremonies require(d that the presiding god be impersonated. Each god was identified by his costume and his makeup. Various devices were used to obtain the cooperation of the sacrificial victim. At times the honor and responsibility of the office was enough. However, the impersonator of the fertility goddess was deceived into believing she had been chosen for the evening by an important noble to be his sexual partner.

Several dances involved impersonations. In the twelfth and eighteenth months the myth of the creation of fire was enacted with dancers chosen to represent the gods. In the twelfth month the "arrival of the gods" was enacted. Huehueteol, "the old god," was the last to arrive. He moved very slowly like an  aged man. A similar dance was performed in the eighteenth month called "the dance of the lords. In the eighth month the women impersonated the myth of Xiolonen, the young maize goddess, in dance and song.

The feasting at these occasions was extensive. The revels included ritualistic drunkenness honoring the gods.Xochipilli, the prince of flowers and the god of pleasure, feasting, and frivolity, presided.