Making Sense of the Aztec Calendar

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Making Sense of the Aztec Calendar
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Why do we use calendars?
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• Xihuitl Trecena Tonalli

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This is October 21, 2005 on the Aztec calendar.

• Xihuitl Trecena Tonalli

Solar year 13-day period
day The Aztec calendar is complicated!
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Today, we will discuss

• Time cycles of the Aztec calendar
• How the ancient Aztecs used the calendar in their
  daily lives
• How the modern-day calendar is related to the
  Aztec calendar
• Religious and astronomical influences on the
  Aztec calendar

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Origination of the Aztec Calendar
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Brief Description of the Sun Stone

• The Sun Stone calendar is evidence of Aztec
  knowledge of math and astronomy.
• The Sun Stone is dedicated to the principal
  Aztec deity the Sun God Tonatiuh
• The Stone is 12 ft in diameter and weighs 24
  metric tons.
• The Stone took 52 years to construct (1427-1479).

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Brief Description of the Sun Stone

• Originally, the calendar was placed on top of the
  main temple in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital.
• The stone faced south in a vertical position.
• Today, Mexico Citys cathedral is located here,
  and the Sun Stone is in the National Museum of
  Anthropology in Mexico City.

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Aztec Calendar Is Made up of Two Different
Calendars

• A religious calendar called Tonalpohualli
• An agricultural/ceremonial calendar called
  Xiupohualli

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Tonalpohualli (the Religious Calendar)

• This calendar was used to count the days.
• The Aztecs used a 260-day cycle for this
  religious calendar.

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Tonalpohualli (the Religious Calendar)

• The 260 days were divided into 20 periods each
  period was given a name with a hieroglyphic sign.
• Each of the 20 periods consisted of 13 days
  called trecenas each day was given a number and
  a god.
• 20 periods x 13 days (trecenas) 260 days
• The priests used this religious calendar to
  determine luck days for activities such as
  growing crops, building houses, and going to war.

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Xiupohualli (The Agricultural and Ceremonial
Calendar)

• This calendar was used to count the years.
• This calendar was kept on a 365-day solar count.
• The 365 days were divided up into 18 months. A
  ritualistic ceremony was assigned to each month.
• The 18 months were divided up into 20 days called
  veintenas.

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Xiupohualli (The Agricultural and Ceremonial
Calendar)

• Five days x four weeks 20 days
• 20 days x 18 periods 360 days
• 365 360 5 days unaccounted for

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What Happened to the Other Five Days?

• The five days not represented were called
  nemontemi.
• These days were days of nothing.
• The nemontemi were a transition between the old
  and new year.
• Normal activity of daily life stopped completely.

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Why Did the Aztecs Need to Count the Years?

• The Aztecs thought of time as cyclical (a cycle).
• They thought they were chosen people whose
  calling was to collaborate with the gods to
  maintain cosmic order.
• Since the days were represented by certain gods,
  the calendar told the Aztec priests how to behave
  in order to achieve the results they wanted
  (agriculture, war, ceremonies, etc.).

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Why Did the Aztecs Need to Count the Years?

• The two calendars align, and the counting of the
  days and the years starts over every 52 years.
• Aztecs called these 52 years a bundle which is
  similar to our century.
• The Aztecs used the counting of the bundles to
  mark historical events and to track events of the
  city-states.

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The New Fire Ceremony

• Five days before the end of the 52nd year, all of
  the Aztec people put out the fires in their homes
  and awaited the possible end of the world.
• On the evening of the last day of the 52-year
  cycle, priests climbed a hill called Mount
  Huixachtlan in Mexico Basin and watched the
  stars.
• When the Pleiades constellation crossed the
  highest point in the sky, the priests knew that
  the sun would rise again to start another 52-year
  cycle.

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New Fire Ceremony

• The priests would then build a fire on a
  sacrificial victims chest using a fire drill.
• When the flames grew into a full fire, the victim
  was sacrificed.
• The priest then ripped the victims heart out of
  his chest and threw it into the fire.

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New Fire Ceremony

• This fire was then used to relight all of the
  fires in the homes of the people.
• This ritual happened in all of the communities
  throughout the Aztec empire.
• People of different communities sat and waited to
  see the fires lit on Mount Huixachtlan.
• People burned all of their possessions and
  domestic goods five days before and renewed them
  in the new cycle.

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Making Connections

• Can you think of a time in our civilization when
  we celebrate new beginnings?

New Years!!!
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Think About It

• New Years marks the end of our cycle.
• 12 months
• The Aztec cycle is marked by the New Fire.
• 52 years

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We use calendars for the same reasons

• Keeping track of important dates
• - Birthdays
• - Marriages
• - Deaths
• - Wars
• 2. Planning for the future
• - Planting crops
• - Taking vacation

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Designing A Calendar

• Our calendar was designed by priests based on
  Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter.
• The time periods of our calendar are based on the
  relationships between the sun, the moon, and the
  Earth.
• - 1 day time it takes for the Earth to rotate
• - 1 month time it takes for the moon to orbit
  Earth
• - 1 year time it takes the Earth to orbit the
  sun

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Summing it Up

• Both the modern-day calendar and the Aztec
  calendar were designed with the same ideas in
  mind.
• - keep track of passage of time
• - use sun, moon, and stars
• - mark important religious events

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However

• The Aztec calendar could only be read by priests,
  ours is simple to understand for everyone.
• The Aztec calendar cycle is longer than ours 18,
  980 days vs. 365 days.
• The Aztecs had two calendars.