For the peoples of Mesoamerica time was not a neutral line on which to arrange events. Each day had a name, a number and a character of its own, governed by divine forces. At the heart of this conception was a ritual calendar of 260 days, shared by the Maya, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Aztecs and many other peoples, which was combined with a solar year of 365 days.
The 260-day cycle
The Maya today call it tzolk'in; the Aztecs called it tonalpohualli, "the count of days". Its structure is simple and ingenious: thirteen numbers combine with twenty day signs. Since 13 and 20 have no common divisors, the same combination returns only after 13 × 20 = 260 days.
Some examples of signs, with their names in Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya:
| Nahuatl | Yucatec Maya | Approximate meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Cipactli | Imix | crocodile, earth monster |
| Ehecatl | Ik' | wind |
| Calli | Ak'bal | house, darkness |
| Ocelotl | Ix | jaguar |
| Ollin | Kaban | movement, earth |
| Xochitl | Ajaw | flower, lord |
A day was therefore named "1 Crocodile", "2 Wind", "3 House" and so on. Scholars propose various hypotheses for the origin of the number 260: the approximate length of human pregnancy, the agricultural rhythm of maize, astronomical intervals. None is proven, and several reasons probably added up.
The 365-day year
Alongside the ritual calendar there was a solar year, the Maya haab' and the Aztec xiuhpohualli, made up of eighteen "months" of twenty days plus five final days. These five days, called wayeb' by the Maya and nemontemi by the Aztecs, were considered dangerous and unlucky: important activities were avoided and the new year was awaited with caution.
The months of the solar year marked the great public festivals, tied to the farming seasons, to rain and to the city's patron deities.
The 52-year Calendar Round
The two counts ran together, like two cogwheels of different sizes. A complete date combined the position in the 260 days with that in the 365. The same pair came round again only after 18,980 days, that is, 52 solar years. This period, which scholars call the Calendar Round, was for the Aztecs the equivalent of our "century".
The Classic Maya also used the Long Count, which counted days from a mythical starting date and allowed events centuries apart to be dated precisely. It was the end of a great cycle of this count, in December 2012, that gave rise to many modern catastrophic interpretations, with no basis in the Maya inscriptions, which announce no end of the world.
The New Fire ceremony
At the end of each 52-year cycle the Aztecs celebrated the xiuhmolpilli, the "binding of the years". Colonial sources, in particular the work of the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún, describe it in rich detail:
- In the preceding days all the fires in homes and temples were put out.
- Household utensils and figurines were thrown away or broken, and household objects were renewed.
- On the decisive night the priests climbed Mount Huixachtlan, near Tenochtitlan, and watched the Pleiades.
- If the stars passed the summit of the sky, the world would go on existing: a new fire was then kindled with the fire drill.
- From that fire torches were lit and carried at a run to the temples and then to every house.
The last New Fire ceremony before the conquest was held in 1507. The rite expressed a profound idea: the cosmos is not guaranteed once and for all, but must be renewed through the ritual action of the community.
The keepers of time today
The 260-day calendar is not a museum piece. In many Maya communities of Guatemala, especially among the K'iche', specialists called aj q'ij, "those of the day", continue to keep the count of days without interruption since pre-Columbian times. They use it to set the dates of ceremonies, to accompany births and to reflect on a person's character according to the day on which they came into the world.
Studio Esoterico Cornelio regards this tradition with respect: it is living knowledge, handed down within specific communities, and not a system to be turned into a commercial horoscope.
In short
- The Mesoamerican ritual calendar combines 13 numbers and 20 signs in a 260-day cycle.
- The 365-day solar year comprised 18 months of 20 days and 5 ill-omened days.
- Together the two counts form the 52-year Calendar Round.
- The Aztecs closed each cycle with the New Fire ceremony, last held in 1507.
- Maya aj q'ij still keep the 260-day count today.
