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.
