The Maya kept two calendars running side by side. The Tzolk'in is a 260-day sacred count, twenty day signs turned against the numbers one through thirteen, with no relation to the zodiac's twelve months; the Haab is a 365-day "vague year" of eighteen twenty-day months plus five unlucky days at year's end. A reading finds the day sign and number a birth date falls on, and places that day within the Haab and the larger cycle that meshes the two.

History

Both calendars are extensively attested in Maya monumental inscriptions and in the handful of surviving pre-conquest bark-paper books, and the Tzolk'in's structure, twenty named days paired with the numbers one through thirteen so that the same day sign and number combination does not recur for 260 days, is one of the oldest continuously documented calendrical inventions in the Americas. The Haab runs alongside it as an approximate solar year: eighteen months of twenty days each account for 360 days, with a further five day period, the Wayeb, traditionally regarded as an unlucky and liminal stretch outside the ordinary months, bringing the total to 365. Because 260 and 365 share a common structure, the combination of a Tzolk'in date and a Haab date, the Calendar Round, does not repeat until 52 Haab years have passed, a cycle long documented as marking a significant span in Maya and wider Mesoamerican timekeeping.

This is a living tradition rather than a purely historical one: Maya day-keepers, most visibly among the K'iche' of highland Guatemala, continue to maintain and consult the Tzolk'in today as part of an unbroken or revived practice, and it is described here on those terms rather than offered as an instructional guide to performing the keeper's own role. A related but historically distinct 260-day count, the tonalpohualli of the Aztec (Mexica) world, uses its own separate day sign names and is treated on its own report item's page rather than folded into this one.

The Twenty Day Signs

In order: Imix, Ik, Akbal, Kan, Chicchan, Cimi, Manik, Lamat, Muluc, Oc, Chuen, Eb, Ben, Ix, Men, Cib, Caban, Etznab, Cauac and Ahau. Each day carries its own traditional character, and a birth date's day sign is paired with a number from one to thirteen, the Tzolk'in's two coordinates.

The Haab Months

Eighteen twenty-day months, Pop, Wo, Sip, Sotz, Sek, Xul, Yaxkin, Mol, Chen, Yax, Sak, Keh, Mak, Kankin, Muwan, Pax, Kayab and Kumku, make up the ordinary Haab year; Wayeb, the five day period that follows, closes the year outside the eighteen named months and was traditionally regarded as a hazardous, transitional stretch.

How A Reading Is Constructed

A reading works from the birth date alone, converting it into its place in the Tzolk'in (a day sign and a number one through thirteen) using the correlation between the Maya count and the modern calendar, then places the same date within the Haab's eighteen months and the five day Wayeb, and names where the two counts sit together within the fifty two year Calendar Round. Because the Tzolk'in remains a living count for its own keepers, this report item presents the historical and structural correspondences rather than instructing a reader in the day-keeper's ritual role.

Where To Read More

• ImixImix, first of the twenty day signs.
• IkIk.
• AkbalAkbal.
• KanKan.
• ChicchanChicchan.
• CimiCimi.
• ManikManik.
• LamatLamat.
• MulucMuluc.
• OcOc.
• ChuenChuen.
• EbEb.
• BenBen.
• IxIx.
• MenMen.
• CibCib.
• CabanCaban.
• EtznabEtznab.
• CauacCauac.
• AhauAhau, twentieth and last of the day signs.
• PopHaab MonthsPop, the first Haab month.
• KumkuHaab MonthsKumku, the eighteenth and last named Haab month.
• WayebWayeb (Unlucky Days)Wayeb, the five day unlucky period that closes the Haab year outside the eighteen named months.