• Mister Neon@lemmy.world
    5·
    7 months ago

    There were several things other than that one form of human sacrifice. They would hold feasts & festivals, offer flowers & dough men made from amaranth, pray at midnight, create paper ornaments, burn copal, sing & dance, and would clean & maintain temples to show their devotion.

  • cerement@slrpnk.net
    4·
    7 months ago

    “The first band were those who took the part of Xipe Totec and went dressed in the skins of the war prisoners who were killed the previous day, so the fresh blood was still flowing.”

    —Xipe Totec, “Our Lord the Flayed One”, god of agriculture

    • ours@lemmy.world
      2·
      7 months ago

      That’s one polyvalent god: agriculture, spring, metallurgy and war to name a few. In the context of skin wearing, the god of war role might be more relevant.

      • cerement@slrpnk.net
        4·
        7 months ago
        • the skin wearing was a representation of the husk of corn
        • the “god of war” was more adjacent – the “formal” god of war was Huitzilopochtli, “Hummingbird on the Left” (Aztec saw the hummingbird as a blood drinker)
        • ours@lemmy.world
          2·
          7 months ago

          That’s some hardcore agriculture! They really put the agro in agriculture.

          And the actual god of war represented by a bloodthirsty hummingbird. Fantastic.

          Thanks for the Aztec facts.

          • cerement@slrpnk.net
            3·
            7 months ago

            check your local nursery or garden center – you’ll find blood and bone meal in the fertilizer section

          • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
            1·
            7 months ago

            So butterflies and hummingbird wings were considered in the realm of war due to “Aztecs” observation that the beating of their wings look like the flickering of fire.