Aztec and Maya Calendars
The Aztec Calendar: Symbols, Meanings, Reading, and More
Aztec and Maya Advanced Calendars
What Is the Aztec Calendar?
The Aztec calendar most of us recognize is the Xiuhpohualli, a disc with concentric rings of symbols. It is based on the Aztec sun stone, an ancient Mesoamerican artifact found buried in Mexico City in 1790.
The Xiuhpohualli calendar depicts an epic chronology using three interconnected measurements of time, as follows:
365 Days
The calendar is based on a 365-day “solar year,” incorporating various Mesoamerican religious beliefs and cycles of agricultural significance.
18 Months
The 365 days are divided into 18 months of 20 days each, called veintenas. Five days called nemontemi or “wasted days” remained, falling outside the veintenas.
The nemontemi were considered unlucky, so normal life activities — even cooking and eating — were forbidden on these days.
5 Worlds of the Sun
Additionally, the calendar contains four squares and three concentric rings around a central figure that denote epochs the Mesoamerican people called “5…
