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During the Spanish Conquest, Christianity was imposed on the Nahua people, which prohibited many traditions and celebrations linked to Aztec gods, including Netotiliztli. Netotiliztli survived because the Nahua shifted the dance's meaning from a spiritual tradition of celebration and worship, to a dance solely for pleasure.
Ochpaniztli was largely concerned with sweeping, which was a reference to the rush of winds that occurred in the valley of Mexico before the winter rains came, the end of the growing season and the start of the harvesting season.
The ceremony takes three days to complete all the ritual activities, with the first two days being confined to a small number of the community members. [3] On the last day of the ritual the public is involved. On the first day, members of the community who ritual specialists construct an altar near the plaza where the ceremony will take place.
Sacrifice was a common theme in the Aztec culture. In the Aztec "Legend of the Five Suns", all the gods sacrificed themselves so that mankind could live.Some years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, a body of the Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from this traditional practice.
The Mexica of the Aztec period are perhaps the most widely studied of the ancient Mesoamerican peoples. While most pre-Columbian historians believe that ritual cannibalism took place in the context of human sacrifices, they do not support Harris' thesis that human flesh was ever a significant portion of the Aztec diet.
The most spectacular ritual was the New Fire ceremony which took place every 52 years and involved every citizen of the Aztec realm. 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.
The New Fire Ceremony (Spanish: Ceremonia del Fuego Nuevo) was an Aztec ceremony performed once every 52 years—a full cycle of the Aztec “calendar round”—in order to stave off the end of the world. The calendar round was the combination of the 260-day ritual calendar and the 365-day annual calendar.
Bernardino de Sahagún dedicates the second book of the Florentine Codex to describing the various ceremonies of the Aztecs. The twenty-sixth chapter of this book provides details about the ceremonies of Tecuilhuitontli, focusing on the festival in Huixtocihuatl's honor. [2] Salt-makers would honor the deity with dances that lasted for ten days ...