Celebrations

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 =How did they celebrate their religion? How often did they celebrate it?= In the Aztec religion, every month had at least one major celebration to honor a deity. The majority of these celebrations revolved around their agricultural season. During the course of each of these celebrations, a person would be selected to serve as the embodiment of a god, and would be treated as such during the festivals. They would be fed, housed, and overall extremely pampered until the time of sacrifice. The rest of the population would feast profusely through the celebrations, and would adorn themselves in their finest garments and dance in the massive public plazas of the greatest Aztec cities. Below are two of the Aztec Celebrations.

Celebration of Quecholli Festival
This would be celebrated on the 280th day of the Aztec year, at end of 14th month, and would honor Mixcoatl. He was known as the Cloud Serpent, and was the Aztec deity of the chase, possessing the features of a deer or rabbit. He was associated with the morning star. One of the four creators of the world, he set a fire from sticks enabling the creation of humans. The festival honored him by way of a ceremonial hunt. It took place in the 14th month because this was the month in which weapons were ceremonially made.

Festival of Xipe Totec Celebration
This festival would always b celebrated in March, and honored Xipe Totec. He was a war-god of the Aztecs, often called "Our Lord the Flayed One". Statues and images of Xipe Totec depict him unusually as a god wearing a human skin. His festival was known as Tlacaxipehualiztli. This festival was celebrated with Aztec warriors dressing up as the god, mimicking him in all aspects. This included slaughtering their prisoners of war, cutting their hearts out, and removing their skins to wear them for the entire 20-day month. They would fight mock battles, after which they would dispose of the rotting skins of the slaughtered in caves or holes in the ground. Fun Fact! Because of this festival's gruesome nature, archaeologists always took it as simply metaphorically, until they discovered literal proof of it's reality.