Category
Tzolkin Day Signs
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The twenty day signs are one of the two cycles of the tzolkin, the 260-day count used across Mesoamerica. Each has a name (Imix, Ik, Akbal and the rest in Yucatec Maya, with different names in other Mesoamerican languages), and a set of associations. Paired with the thirteen numbers they give the 260 named days of the round, a count still kept by daykeepers in highland Guatemala.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 20
- Size of the Traditional Set
- Twenty named day signs 1
Structure
- Structure
- The twenty day signs run against the thirteen numbered tones. Because 13 and 20 share no common factor, a given sign-and-number pairing recurs only every 260 days. 2
Attestation
- Era of Attestation
- Attested in Mesoamerica from at least the sixth century BCE. 1
Status
- Status Today
- Living: K'iche' day-keepers in the Guatemalan highlands keep the 260-day count today, without a break in the sequence. 3
Learn More
The Twenty Day Signs
The twenty day signs are one of the two cycles of the tzolkin, the 260-day ritual count used across Mesoamerica. Each sign has a name (Imix, Ik, Akbal, Kan and the rest in Yucatec Maya, with different names in other Mesoamerican languages such as Nahuatl), and a set of associations: a direction, a patron deity, and qualities of character and fortune.
Running the twenty day signs against the thirteen tones produces the 260-day count, in which a given sign-and-number pairing recurs only every two hundred and sixty days. The count is attested across Mesoamerica for well over two thousand years.
Day-Sign and Destiny
In the Mesoamerican tradition the day sign of a person's birth was held to shape their character and fate, and the tzolkin was used for divination, naming, and the scheduling of ritual, a role that continues among some Maya communities today, where day-keepers maintain the count. Each sign carries its own auguries.
The atlas gives each day sign its name, direction, patron and associations. The day signs pair with the thirteen tones, and work alongside the haab and Long Count, each treated in its own category under Calendars & Time.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.