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The Aztecs were always moving from place to place. Because of this they had a legend of how they would find a home and settle down forever. One in the Valley of Mexico this legend came true. They lived there from then on. To hunt and fish they built canoes to get around. The area they lived had a lot of rare plants that they made medicines from.

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The Aztecs worshiped many gods and had many beliefs. They always thought that their gods were hungry and they needed to feed them with things like sacrifices. One of their main beliefs is that some of their gods controlled nature and watch over their seeds. They had always believed in going to the afterlife and continuing to live in peace. Just like people their gods were not only hungry but also tired and need rest every now and then. They also believed that if they did not worship their gods everyday they would be punished.

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The Aztecs were always a very rich civilization and lived in luxury. The rich had slaves to do their work and help them. The poor could afford slaves however so they did their own work for money. The rich normally lived in sun-dried house above the poor. The poor normally had to be farmers and lived in huts.

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The Aztecs didn't normally eat meat for food. Because of this they grew chili peppers, corn, tomatoes, beans, and squash. They built floating gardens because they lived around a lot of water. Almost all their food was spicy because they put their chili peppers into basically all their food. Aside from all they farmed food they also ate insects and reptiles.

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What were the human aspects of their gods?

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What were the human aspects of their gods?

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aztec daily life work & trades aztec warriors

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Aztec Daily Life; Aztec Daily Life of The Poor; Aztec Daily Life of Nobility; Aztec Daily Life Laws & Rules; Aztec Daily Life Images; Aztec Daily Life History & Facts.

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Aztec rituals and religious symbolism imbued the civilization's life with religious meaning throughout the year. 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.

Whether the ceremonies celebrated or invoked fertility, sacred mountains, planting, renewal, trade or hunting, people fasted and feasted, dressed in their finest and danced to music in the great public plazas of Aztec cities. The priesthood organized and guided all the religious ceremonies, arranging for every necessary component and making sure they ran smoothly.

Human sacrifice was important, even vital, to the Aztecs. They embraced human sacrifice because their gods, all the gods, had sacrificed their blood and lives in creating the world and everything in it, including humans. To honor the sacrifice of the gods, man, too, had to sacrifice his blood and life. To this end, most Mesoamerican cultures featured human sacrifice, and most Aztecs went to the sacrifice willingly. We will discuss this in greater detail in another article.

Not every great ceremony or ritual required human sacrifice. In some Aztec rituals, priests and laymen would cut themselves and offer their blood to the gods. In others, small birds or other creatures were sacrificed. Nevertheless, many Aztec ceremonies required human victims.

One representative ceremony happened in spring, Tlacaxipehualiztli, which honored the god of vegetation, Xipe Totec. This fertility ritual required the sacrifice of captured warriors. Their skin was flayed from them after death, and the priests of Xipe Totec wore these human skins for the 20 days of the ceremony, which also featured gladiatorial battles and military ceremonies. In a May ceremony called Toxcatl, an individual was chosen to represent Tezcatlipoca, the god of fate or destiny. The victim was treated as and portrayed the god until the time of his sacrifice. During this 17 day-long festival, people indulged in feasting and dancing and small birds were sacrificed along with "Tezcatlipoca."

At the end of every 360 day year was the time of Nemontemi, a period of five days to even out the 365 days of a solar year. This was a time of bad luck, and all stayed in their houses, eating little or fasting, waiting for the five days to pass. No religious ceremonies took place and no business was done.

Every 52 years, the two Aztec calendars would align and the New Fire Rites or Toxiuhmolpilia, took place. Again, all activities would cease and house and temple fires were doused. On Uixachtlan Hill, priests sacrificed a man and removed his heart. They started a fire in his chest, and from that fire, priests lit their torches and took them down the hill to the cities and the temples. In the dark of the night, Aztecs would watch the world's fires lit again from the one sacrifice. New temple and house fires were lit by the priests. People bought new clothes, and replaced their day-to-day tools and utensils. A new cycle would begin.

Aztec rituals appear alien today to a Western observer, but the symbolism faithfully depicted their cosmological understanding of the universe.
This article is part of our larger resource on Aztec civilization. For a comprehensive overview of the Aztec Empire, including its military, religion, and agriculture, click here.

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Aztec Rituals and Religious Ceremonies - History

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Aztec rituals and religious symbolism imbued the civilization's life with religious meaning throughout the year. 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.

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The name Aztec is derived from Aztlán (variously translated as "White Land," "Land of White Herons," or "Place of Herons"), an allusion to their origins, probably in northwestern Mexico. They were also called the Tenochca, from an eponymous ancestor, Tenoch, and the Mexica, probably from Metzliapán ("Moon Lake"), the mystical name for Lake Texcoco. From Tenochca was derived the name of their great city, Tenochtitlán, founded on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. From Mexica came the name for the city that superseded the Aztec capital and for the surrounding valley, which was applied later to the whole Mexican nation. The Aztecs referred to themselves as Culhua-Mexica, to link themselves with Colhuacán, the centre of the most-civilized people of the Valley of Mexico. See also pre-Columbian civilizations: Aztec culture to the time of the Spanish conquest.

Origins of the Aztec people

The origin of the Aztec people is uncertain, but elements of their own tradition suggest that they were a tribe of hunters and gatherers on the northern Mexican plateau before their appearance in Mesoamerica in perhaps the 12th century ce; Aztlán, however, may be legendary. It is possible that their migration southward was part of a general movement of peoples that followed, or perhaps helped trigger, the collapse of the highly developed Toltec civilization of central Mexico and its capital, Tula, a spectacular urban centre that featured pyramids, temples, public buildings, and statuary.

At the beginning of the 12th century, catastrophe befell Toltec civilization when Tula was attacked and destroyed, as were other important Toltec centres. Tribes of hunters and gatherers, including a group of Chichimec under the leadership of Xólotl, took advantage of the situation and traveled from the arid plateau of northern Mexico toward the fertile, heavily settled central zone. Xólotl's Chichimec joined forces with the remaining Toltecs, resulting in a period of relative peace and cultural progress in the Valley of Mexico. During this time the Aztecs, who, according to legend, had been wandering in search of a new place to settle, established a precarious home near the ruins of Tula. There they improved their approach to agriculture and acquired other technological knowledge.

However, their stay was temporary. Aztec tradition holds that the god Huitzilopochtli instructed them to depart again in search of a permanent home, the location of which would be revealed by the appearance of an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a serpent in its beak (an image that is memorialized on Mexico's national flag). A long pilgrimage ensued that ended in 1325 on a small island in Lake Texcoco, where, it is said, elder members of the people spotted the eagle, the cactus, and the serpent. There they built a temple and, around it, on islands in Lake Texcoco, the first dwellings of what was to become the powerful city of Tenochtitlán.

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Aztec | History, Empire, Facts, Location, & Culture

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The ninth emperor, Montezuma II, was taken prisoner by Hernan Cortes and died in custody. His successors were unable to stave off Cortes, and the empire came to an end in 1521.