Just like all ancient civilizations, the ancient Maya, Inca and Aztecs had their own myths and stories. They believed in their own gods and practiced their own traditions. Although there were similarities between the cultures of the three civilizations, they had separate beliefs and lifestyles.
Many civilizations in ancient Mesoamerica practiced sacrifice. In particular, the Maya and Aztecs had traditions of sacrificing animals and even sometimes humans for the gods. They built large, beautiful temples to honour the gods and offered the gods sacrifices often.
For the ancient Maya, the maize god was a central religious figure.
Maize, also known as corn, was very important to the Mayan people because they relied on the crop as their main food source. They prayed to the maize god and offered sacrifices so that their harvest would be successful each year.
The Inca favoured the worship of the sun god, Inti.
In fact, the Inca considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the 'child of the sun'. To them, the king was chosen by the sun god and had a divine right to rule the people.
For the Aztecs, no one was mightier than Huitzilopochtli, the god of sun and war. The Aztec people had a legend that told of the origin of the Aztec civilization. They believed that Huitzilopochtli guided the first Aztecs to their new land by telling them to look for an eagle eating a snake while perched on a cactus.
There, according to Huitzilopochtli, the people should build their new home. Legend has it that this was the site on which the first Aztecs built their capital city of Tenochtitlan. Even today, this famous vision can be seen on the coat of arms of Mexico.
The Aztec civilization was the only one of the three that practiced mummification. Unlike the famous Egyptian mummies, Aztecs mummies were preserved in seated position. Some people believe that these mummies are of people who were killed as human sacrifices.
One thing that all three civilizations had in common was that they built temples to honour their gods and held celebrations for them. One of the best ways to celebrate the gods was to have a ballgame!
The Maya, Inca and Aztecs played varying versions of the Mesoamerican ballgame known as tlachtli. In the game, players hit a solid rubber ball with their hips, knees and elbows and tried to pass the ball through a stone hoop. Along with being an entertaining sport, the ballgame also had religious and mythological meaning.
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