The
Aztec calendar, is the
calendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
system that was used by the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
s as well as other
Pre-ColumbianThe Pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the...
peoples of central
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. It is one of the
Mesoamerican calendarsMesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. In addition to the basic function of a calendar—defining and organizing periods of time in a way that allows events to be fixed, ordered and noted relative to each other and some...
, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient
MesoamericaMesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries...
.
The calendar consisted of a 365-day calendar cycle called
xiuhpohualliThe Xiuhpohualli was a 365-day calendar used by the Aztecs and other pre-Columbian Nahua peoples in central Mexico. It was composed of eighteen 20-day "months," called veintenas or metzli with a separate 5 day period at the end of the year called the nemontemi...
(year count) and a 260-day ritual cycle called
tonalpohualliThe tonalpohualli, a Nahuatl word meaning "count of days", is a 260-day sacred period in use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, especially among the Aztecs. This calendrical period is neither solar nor lunar, but rather consists of 20 trecena, or 13-day periods...
(day count). These two cycles together formed a 52 year "century," sometimes called the "
calendar roundIn the Mesoamerican calendars, Calendar Round dates are composed by interlacing the dates of a 260-day period with dates from a 365-day period...
." The
xiuhpohualli is considered to be the agricultural calendar, since it is based on the sun, and the
tonalpohualli is considered to be the sacred calendar.
The calendric year may have begun at some point in the distant past with the first appearance of the
PleiadesIn astronomy, the Pleiades, or seven sisters, are an open star cluster containing relatively young hot blue stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...
(
TianquiztliTianquiztli which in translation means "Marketplace". Tianquiztli was the Aztec's name for the Pleiades. Time was measured by movements of the stars and the sun. Their calendar was based upon a fifty-two year cycle...
)
asterismIn astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official constellation. Like constellations, they are composed of stars which, while they are in the same general direction, are not physically related, often being at significantly different distances from Earth....
in the east immediately before the dawn light.
The
Aztec calendar, is the
calendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
system that was used by the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
s as well as other
Pre-ColumbianThe Pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the...
peoples of central
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. It is one of the
Mesoamerican calendarsMesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. In addition to the basic function of a calendar—defining and organizing periods of time in a way that allows events to be fixed, ordered and noted relative to each other and some...
, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient
MesoamericaMesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries...
.
The calendar consisted of a 365-day calendar cycle called
xiuhpohualliThe Xiuhpohualli was a 365-day calendar used by the Aztecs and other pre-Columbian Nahua peoples in central Mexico. It was composed of eighteen 20-day "months," called veintenas or metzli with a separate 5 day period at the end of the year called the nemontemi...
(year count) and a 260-day ritual cycle called
tonalpohualliThe tonalpohualli, a Nahuatl word meaning "count of days", is a 260-day sacred period in use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, especially among the Aztecs. This calendrical period is neither solar nor lunar, but rather consists of 20 trecena, or 13-day periods...
(day count). These two cycles together formed a 52 year "century," sometimes called the "
calendar roundIn the Mesoamerican calendars, Calendar Round dates are composed by interlacing the dates of a 260-day period with dates from a 365-day period...
." The
xiuhpohualli is considered to be the agricultural calendar, since it is based on the sun, and the
tonalpohualli is considered to be the sacred calendar.
The calendric year may have begun at some point in the distant past with the first appearance of the
PleiadesIn astronomy, the Pleiades, or seven sisters, are an open star cluster containing relatively young hot blue stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...
(
TianquiztliTianquiztli which in translation means "Marketplace". Tianquiztli was the Aztec's name for the Pleiades. Time was measured by movements of the stars and the sun. Their calendar was based upon a fifty-two year cycle...
)
asterismIn astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official constellation. Like constellations, they are composed of stars which, while they are in the same general direction, are not physically related, often being at significantly different distances from Earth....
in the east immediately before the dawn light. (See
heliacal risingThe heliacal rising of a star occurs when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn, after a period when it was hidden below the horizon or when it was just above the horizon but hidden by the brightness of the sun.Each day after the heliacal rising, the star will appear to rise...
.) But due to the precession of the Earth's axis, it fell out of favor to a more constant reference point such as a solstice or equinox. Early Spanish chroniclers recorded it being celebrated in proximity with the Spring equinox.
|-
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Cuetzpalin || || Lizard || South
|-
|
||
Cōātl || || Serpent
Snake || East
|-
|
||
Miquiztli || || Death || North
|-
|
||
Mazātl || || Deer || West
|-
|
||
Tōchtli || || Rabbit || South
|-
|
||
Ātl || || Water || East
|-
|
||
Itzcuintli || || Dog || North
|-
|
||
OzomatliOzomahtli || || Monkey || West
|}
|style="vertical-align: top"|
| Image |
Nahuatl name |
Pronunciation |
English translation |
Direction |
 |
Malīnalli |
| Grass |
South |
 |
Ācatl |
| Reed |
East |
 |
Ocēlōtl |
| Jaguar |
North |
 |
Cuāuhtli |
| Eagle |
West |
 |
Cōzcacuāuhtli |
| Vulture |
South |
 |
Ollīn |
| Movement
Quake
Earthquake |
East |
 |
Tecpatl |
| Flint
Flint Knife |
North |
 |
Quiyahuitl |
| Rain |
West |
 |
Xōchitl |
| Flower |
South |
|}
Wind and Rain are represented by images of their associated gods,
EhecatlEhecatl is a pre-Columbian deity associated with the wind, who features in Aztec mythology and the mythologies of other cultures from the central Mexico region of Mesoamerica. He is most usually interpreted as the aspect of the Feathered Serpent deity as a god of wind, and is therefore also known...
and
TlalocTlaloc was an important deity in Aztec religion, a god of rain, fertility, and water. He was a beneficent god who gave life and sustenance, but he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. In Aztec iconography he...
(respectively).
Other marks on the stone showed the current world and also the worlds before this one. Each world was called a sun, and each sun had its own species of inhabitants. The Aztecs believed that they were in the fifth sun and like all of the suns before them they would also eventually perish due to their own imperfections. Every fifty two years was marked out because they believed that fifty two years was a life cycle and at the end of any given life cycle the gods could take away all that they have and destroy the world.
|}
Veintena (twenty); metzli (moon)
"In ancient times the year was composed of eighteen months, and thus it was observed by these Indian people. Since their months were made of no more than twenty days, these were all the days contained in a month, because they were not guided by the moon but by the days; therefore, the year had eighteen months. The days of the year were counted twenty by twenty." Diego DuránDiego Durán was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, The History of the Indies of New Spain, a book that was much criticized in his lifetime for helping the "heathen" maintain their culture.Also known as the...
XiuhpohualliThe Xiuhpohualli was a 365-day calendar used by the Aztecs and other pre-Columbian Nahua peoples in central Mexico. It was composed of eighteen 20-day "months," called veintenas or metzli with a separate 5 day period at the end of the year called the nemontemi...
is the Aztec year (
xiuhitl) count (
pohualli). One solar year consists of 360 named days and 5 nameless (
nemontemi). The year was broken into 18 periods of twenty days each, sometimes compared to the Julian month. The Aztec word for moon is
metzli but whatever name that was used for these periods is unknown. The Mayan calendar has a similar configuration and the same 20-days period which they labeled
uinal. Through Spanish usage, the 20 day period of the Aztec calendar has become commonly known as a
veintena.
Each 20 days period started on
Cipactli (Crocodile) for which a festival was held. The eighteen
veintena are listed below. The dates are from early eye-witnesses. Each wrote what they saw.
Bernardino de SahagúnBernardino de Sahagún , was a Spanish Franciscan missionary to the Aztec people of Mexico, best known as the compiler of the Florentine Codex, also known as Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España...
's date precedes the observations of Diego Durán by several decades and is believed to be more recent to the surrender. Both are shown to emphasize the fact that the beginning of the Native new year became non-uniform as a result of an absence of the unifying force of Tenochtitlan after the Mexica defeat.
See also
- Maya calendar
The Maya calendar is a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala....
- Mesoamerican calendars
Mesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. In addition to the basic function of a calendar—defining and organizing periods of time in a way that allows events to be fixed, ordered and noted relative to each other and some...
- Inca calendar (:ru:Календарь инков)
External links
Detailed description of the temalacatl from Mexico's Museo Nacional de Antropolgía