The Maya Calendar round


 The Maya Calendar round

  •  A Calendar Round date gives the position of a given day in both the 260-day count (Tzolk’in) and the 365-day count (Haab).


  • It is always written in the same order: (1) day coefficient + day name in the Tzolk’in, and (2) day number + month name in the Haab.


  • Since 260 and 365 have a least common denominator of 5, it will take 18,980 days (260 x 365/5), approximately 52 years, before a specific date in the Calendar Round recurs.
  • The 52-year count was in use throughout Mesoamerica
  • The Mexica (Aztecs), for example, called these periods xiuhmolpilli, meaning “year bundle”. The start of a new xiuhmolpilli was cause for much celebration. The Mayan name for these 52-year periods is not known.


  • The association of the 20-day cycle in the Tzolk’in and the 20-day months in the Haab creates a noteworthy phenomenon: for any given year, the first day of all the months in the Haab will start with the same Tzolk’in day. For example, if the first day of the year (1 Pop) falls on a day Ben in the Tzolk’in, then the first day of every month in that year will be on a day, Ben. These days are called “Year Bearers”.

  • Given the short month of 5 days (Wayeb) at the end of the Haab, the first day of the following year has to be 5 days later in the Tzolk’in.

  • Since there are only 20 days in the latter, there can be only 4 Year Bearers.

  • During the Classic times, these were Ak’bal, Lamat, Ben, and Etz’nab. The same traditional year-bearer pattern continues in some traditional highland Maya communities. By the time of European contact, however, the year-bearers used in the Yucatec calendar were K’an, Muluk, Ix, and Kawak

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