1. By: S.R., N.S., and S.T. Period 2

4. The Aztecs were polytheistic. They believed in about a thousand gods. They believed in these gods because they each represented a force of nature, and the Aztecs believed that disrespecting a single god could lead to distruction and chaos in the world. Thus, The calendar helped them know, on which day they worshipped a specific gods. But they worshipped the sun god the most. Religious ceremonies took place in a temple called teocalli, and were conducted by priests. If a person died a normal death, their souls would have to go through the nine lives of the underworld before reaching Mictlan, the realm of the dead. But a warrior who died in war, or a woman who died during childbirth was thought to go straight to heaven.

5. They conducted human sacrifice because they believed that if they fed the sun blood, it would keep the sun god happy and that it would rise every morning. Being sacrificed was considered an honor to the Aztec people because they were thought they would go straight to heaven. To the Aztecs, it was the way they died rather than the way they lived that determined whether they went to the sun god (heaven) or hell. If a person died a normal death, their souls would have to go through the nine lives of the underworld before reaching Mictlan, the realm of the dead. But they also sacrificed men who they captured in war.