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The Aztec calendar was the calendar of the Aztec people of Pre-Columbian Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica.
The calendar consisted of a 365 day calendar cycle and a 260 day ritual cycle.
These two cycles together formed a 52 year "century", sometimes called the "Calendar Round".
1 365 day calendar
The solar calendar of 365 days, called the Vague Year (or Civil Year), was composed of 18 months of 20 days each, with a period of 5 or 6 days added at the end. The 360-day period was called "xíhuitl" by Aztecs, . The final unlucky days were called " Nemontemi " in Nahuatl.
Each month had its own special name, and the days were numbered from zero to nineteen. The days of the last month, Nemontemi, were numbered from zero to four.
2 260 day cycle
This solar calendar was inseparable from the Sacred Round, or Sacred Almanac. The priests used this ritual calendar of 260 days called Tonalpohualli primarily for divinatory purposes.
The method of naming the individual days consisted in the combination of twenty pictorial signs with the numbers one to thirteen.
Each of the day signs also association with one of the four cardinal directions.
The 20 day signs are:
- Cipactli ( alligator, aquatic monster) (East)
- Éhecatl ( wind, wind god) (North)
- Calli ( house) (West}
- Cuetzpalin ( lizard){South}
- Cóatl (serpent, snake)(E)
- Miquiztli ( death)(N)
- Mázatl ( deer)(W)
- Tochtli ( rabbit) (S)
- Atl ( waterDrinking water This article focuses on water as we experience it every day. The water (molecule) article describes water from a scientific and technical perspective. Water is an abundant substance on Earth. It exists in many forms, such as sea, rain, and)(E)
- Itzcuintli ( dogThis article discusses the domestic dog. For other members of the dog family, see Canidae. The dog is a canine omnivorous mammal that has been domesticated for somewhere between 14,000 and 150,000 years. In those millennia, the dog has developed into hund)(N)
- Ozomatli ( monkeyFor the TV show Monkey see Monkey (TV series Cynomolgus Monkey at Batu Caves, Malaysia A monkey is any member of two of the three groupings of simian primates. These two groupings are the New World and Old World monkeys. Because of their similarity to mon)(W)
- Malinalli (dead grassIn popular language grass means a short, green, ground covering or lawn usually, but not necessarily comprised of a "true grass" or grasses, called turf. See also pasture, grass (material . In botany, grass refers to plants of the family Poaceae. These ar) (S)
- Ácatl ( reedThe word "reed" has many different possible meanings in English. The primary meaning of reed is a plant with a tall strong hollow stem that grows in large groups in shallow water or on marshy ground. See reed (plant . Reed also denotes the stem itself tha)(E)
- Océlotl ( ocelotThe ocelot Leopardus pardalis or Felis pardalis is a wild cat distributed over South and Central America. Its northernmost occurrence is Texas. It is up to 100 cm (about 3. 2 feet) in length, plus 45 cm (about 1. 5 foot) tail length. It is similar in appe, jaguarJaguars Panthera onca are large members of the cat family native to South and Central America. They are closely related to the lions, tigers, and leopards of the Old World, and are the largest species of the cat family found in the Americas. They vary fro)(N)
- Quauhtli ( eagleAquila ''Haliaeetus ''Pithecophaga ''Circaetus Scientists argue whether Accipitriformes are a separate order,or belong to the Falconiformes. Eagles are large birds of prey, which are found mainly in the Old World, with only two species ( Bald Eagle and Go)(W)
- Cozcaquauhtli ( king buzzard , vulture) (South)
- Ollin ( motion, earthquake)(East)
- Técpatl ( flint, flint knife)(North)
- Quiáhuitl ( rain)(West)
- Xóchitl ( flower)(South)
These day signs would be combined with numbers, for example: 1 Cipactli, 2 Eecatl, 3 Calli, and so on to 13 Acatle, which was followed by 1 Ocelotl, 2 Quauhtli, etc. There being no common factor to the numbers 13 and 20, a period of 13 x 20 days, or 260, would elapse before the sign 1 Cipactli would recur. This period of 260 days constituted the divinatory or ritual calendar , known as tonalamatl . The tonalamatl was subdivided in various ways; in some manuscripts each of the twenty 13-day periods, or weeks, is shown separately, together with the figure of a god who was especially associated with the first day, but whose influence was supposed to extend over the whole "week". In some manuscripts the tonalamatl is arranged on a different system: in five long horizontal rows of 52 days each. Each row, and each vertical column of five days, is provided with a presiding deity symbol, the influence of which must be assessed.
See also: Maya calendar
