Our ancestors lived in a world different from the modern one. It's not about computers or mobile phones, not about the fast Internet or other benefits of civilization. The world itself, in their minds, was completely different. According to the surviving sources, we collect bit by bit the lost cultural layers of a thousand years ago. The worship of animals or plants, weather phenomena or people endowed with divine power. This is our story, the origins of traditions and behavioral patterns.
We instinctively fear the unknown, give it a mystical component. Remember when in childhood, after watching the "horror", it was scary to turn off the lights. Or the silhouettes in the dark that our frightened consciousness painted. Our ancestors experienced something similar, observing natural phenomena.
Lightning strikes or peals of thunder, flowering plants or their wilting, all tried to find an explanation for this. This explanation was spirits and gods, in the power of which was life itself and death. They possessed intelligence and character, which means they could be supportive or, on the contrary, angry. But how to appease the creature on which your existence depends? As well as man - gifts. So there were attempts to win over the spirits in the hope of good weather, heavy rains and yields.
Before their disappearance, the Aztecs were a fairly developed culture. They lived on the territory of modern Mexico and became famous not so much with the pyramids and calendars of the end of the world, but rather with extravagant sacrifices.
It is worth clarifying that the Aztecs did not know what the Renaissance was and did not use the achievements of the French revolution. They were alien to the concept of natural rights and the concept of "value of life."
Everything that they did fit into the logic of their life and was completely normal. And to be a victim is an honor, because it is the embodiment of a deity.
The basis of the life of the Aztecs is agriculture. The survival of the whole city depends on a good harvest, which means that a high harvest must be provided at any cost. Most often, slaves captured in other settlements became honorable victims. For rituals, both adults and children were used.
So, for the September holiday in honor of the goddess maize (a relative of corn), the Aztecs chose a young girl no older than 14 years old. For the rite was not suitable, but only the most beautiful sacrifice.
The child’s clothes were decorated with thematic objects: they put on maize jewelry, erected a miter and secured a green feather. Everything was done for the sole purpose of betraying the image of the goddess to the victim. In this guise, she was taken to homes where the young lady performed a ritual dance. In the evening of the same day, the inhabitants of the city gathered in the temple, where the first part of the ritual began.
The temple housed the chamber of the goddess maize, which, these days, were generously decorated. Residents brought seeds and ears of cultivated crops. To the unceasing music, a column of priests appeared in the temple, in the center of which there was a divine sacrifice.
The girl stood on a stretcher filled with seeds and ears, after which the high priest approached her. The first wave of the ritual sickle cut off a lock of hair and a feather from the girl’s head. These gifts were offered to the statue and, in prayer, were offered with thanks for the good harvest. In the concert room, the girl got off the stretcher and could rest.
In the morning, the ritual continued. The victim, representing the goddess of maize, again stood on a stretcher. To ritual songs and music, the column went to the sanctuary of the god "Huitzilopochtli" and returned to the chamber of the goddess maize. The child descended from the stretcher to the floor covered with vegetables and cereals. After that, all the inhabitants of the city entered the chambers one by one. The ritual was begun by the elders who presented saucers with their own dried blood as a gift. Each of those entering the chambers expressed respect for the personification of the deity and sat down on his haunches (an analogue of kneeling).
At the end of the ritual, the residents went home, where they could rest before continuing the rite. By evening, the final phase of the celebration began. The incarnation of the goddess was fumigated with incense, laid with his back on a seed-paved floor and cut off his head. Blood poured from the wound into the cup and sprinkled with it the offerings, the statue of the goddess, the walls and the floor of her chambers. One of the priests tore off the skin of the child’s body and pulled it on himself. Along with the skin, her jewelry was also used. The final ritual dance began, at the head of which was a priest covered in children's skin.
No less bloody was the ritual dedicated to masculinity and fertility. Among the prisoners, the youngest and handsome guy was chosen. Usually, a warrior from a captured tribe was chosen for this role. When choosing a victim, they were guided by the absence of defects (scars, marks, injuries) and the idea of male beauty. Being the personification of the deity, the guy was treated accordingly. For the whole year he had access to the best food, he was always surrounded by guards. At this time, the victim was taught manners, language and playing musical instruments. Four months before the ritual, four women were placed at his disposal.
The sacrifice took place at the top of one of the pyramids. On the altar of the poor fellow, the chest was opened and the still beating heart was cut out. The lifeless body was thrown off to the crowd, where everyone tried to taste part of the divine flesh. At this time, the priest watered himself with the blood remaining in the heart and ate it.
Despite the apparent savagery, such rituals were carried out until the XVI century, until the invasion of the conquistadors. However, not only the Aztecs were famous for sacrificing people. For a long time in India, the divine pantheon was revered in this way. Before the planting of Christianity, bloody celebrations were popular in Rome and Greece. The stupefied worshipers cut off parts of their bodies and threw them into a heated crowd. According to beliefs, catching a fanatic’s ear or nose piece is good luck, but nowadays, according to religious traditions, believers taste the blood and flesh of their god.
But that's another story…
