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During this, commoners would destroy house utensils, quench all fires, and receive new fire from the bonfire on top of Mt. Huixachtlan, lit on the chest of a sacrificed person by the high priests. Women were also a vital part of Aztec society and religion. Many women had the right to land and the ability to vote on important issues.
Among the Aztecs, the name Quetzalcoatl was also a priestly title, as the two most important priests of the Aztec Templo Mayor were called "Quetzalcoatl Tlamacazqui". In the Aztec ritual calendar, different deities were associated with the cycle-of-year names: Quetzalcoatl was tied to the year Ce Acatl (One Reed), which correlates to the year 1519.
Most were sung to praise the highest deities, including Tezcatlipoca, who was often addressed as the "Giver of Life". In one hymn, he is mentioned as being both the creator and destroyer of the world, and both as a poet and a scribe. Everyone, including commoners, high priests, and the king, were involved in some aspect of the Toxcatl ...
The Aztecs abandoned their rites and merged their own religious beliefs with Catholicism, whereas the relatively autonomous Maya kept their religion as the core of their beliefs and incorporated varying degrees of Catholicism. [6] The Aztec village religion was supervised by friars, mainly Franciscan. Prestige and honor in the village were ...
Cihuateteo were likened to the spirits of male warriors who died in violent conflict, because childbirth was conceptually equivalent to the battles of Aztec culture. They lurk in temples or lie in wait at crossroads and are ghastly to behold. Tzitzimītl (sg. / Tzitzimīmeh, pl.), female deities.
In Aztec mythology, the Thirteen Heavens were formed out of Cipactli's head when the gods made creation out of its body, whereas Tlaltícpac, the earth, was made from its center and the nine levels of the underworld from its tail.
Priests were allowed on the battlefield as chaplains, and could only defend themselves with clubs. [4] The Aztecs had a vanguard of warrior priests who carried deity banners and made sacrifices on the battlefield. [5] In more recent times, the warrior-priest was a common figure in the First Serbian Uprising (1804–13). [6]
The Aztecs performed ritual self-sacrifice (also called autosacrifice or blood-letting) on a daily basis. [17] The Aztecs believed that Huitzilopochtli needed daily nourishment (tlaxcaltiliztli) in the form of human blood and hearts and that they, as “people of the sun,” were required to provide Huitzilopochtli with his sustenance. [18]