How They Did It - Growing Up Aztec

I love this kind of everyday history! What other kinds of people would you like to see in a "Growing Up" series?

"The midwife greeted the infant with a long speech warning of the sorrows and dangers of life." metal af

Imagine just being born and you're a shivering, wailing infant and the lady that helped birth you starts going 'life is misery and suffering, you will struggle and it can be very dark' and you're just laying there in her arms like 'babowuhwuu.'??

Oh my gosh! Mexican here, when you said they threw their baby teeth into mouse holes, something clicked! In Mexico our "tooth fairy" is called "El Raton" which directly translates to the rat. So it seems this piece of Aztec culture has made it all the way into the 21st century. So cool!

I wish my mother warned me about the hardships of life, even if I was 30 minutes old

Aztec dude: “Congrats on opening up a school! How should we name this fine institution of learning and development?” Another Aztec dude: “THE HOUSE OF TEARS!!!”

Pillow Fights: Boys used Soft Grass filled sacks. Girls used Cactus thorns... One of these things is not like the others.

"boys might be named after clothing" i would like you to meet my sons, shoe and pants

Meanwhile, Somewhere out there a mouse king watches this video on his throne made of discarded aztec baby teeth.

Sounds like the Aztecs had a really high pain tolerance by the time that they were adults

There's no better name for a school than a house of tears

This is so interesting. Why isnt there a movie with young Aztecs characters. Imagine being able to see the city Tenochtitlan in a movie.

Here in the Philippines, we also have a belief that if you stepped over a child then their growth will be stunted. To reverse it, you must step over backwards. Maybe we inherited it from Mexican migrants to the Philippines during the Spanish colonization.

I guess someone stepped over me as a child and never stepped back--

Is no one else going to mention the really cute artwork done for the children? Like, big props to the artist who did them!

crazy how alot of these customs are still seen in mexico

concept: a highschool coming of age movie but theyre aztecs

Imagine just being a helpless, wailing, newborn baby and some woman you've literally never met and can't even see just lifts you up over her head and says: "Listen kid, life's gonna suck." -Beginning of an Aztec

I was expecting a great video, but I didn't expect it to blow my mind the way it did. I was born in a rural part of Mexico. When I was born, my grandmother buried my umbilical cord in the middle of a field. I always wondered why, my grandmother always said that you're supposed to, it's tradition. When I saw the umbilical cord thing in the video it blew my mind. I got chills. Also the mouse hole thing is still done, though in a modified form. Traditionally the tooth faerie concept doesn't exist in Mexico. Instead we have a tooth mouse. When I was a child, my father told me to make a wish on the tooth and leave the tooth in the trash or outside. From there the tooth would be taken by a mouse who would somehow grant my wish eventually. That last part is really vague on details but that's how it went. My cousins and friends were told very similar things. Also for us the man on the moon is actually a rabbit. Lol

Wholesome fact: Aztecs believed in Chichihuanauco, a place where Aztec babies went if they died. The Chichihuanauco was a valley with a huge bush with breasts hanging from its branches, so the babies could feed themselves.