Aztec and Maya Calendar
In the tonalpohualli, the sacred Aztec calendar, Sunday September 26, 2038 is:
Xihuitl:
solar year
13 - Tochtli (rabbit)
Long Count:
Mayan calendar
13.1.6.2.10
Xiuhpohualli:
365-day calendar
2 - Nemontemi (-)
(Correlation: Alfonso Caso [adjust])
The significance of this day
Aztec facts
The Aztecs did not use a leap year correction but they knew the length of a solar year is neither 365 nor 365.25 days. Presumably they kept some count of days to register astronomical events but no evidence of an Aztec Long Count exists.
This is the second of the five unlucky days (nemontemi) at the end of a year (xihuitl). It is better not to carry out any activity during these unfortunate and useless days. These nemontemi are extra dangerous because they are at the end of a calendar round of 52 years (xiuhmolpilli or bundle). All fires are to be extinguished. No public events are organized. After the nemontemi, there are seven days to prepare for the New Fire ceremony, held before the start of the day 1-Cipactli, the first day of the new bundle of years.
Day Itzcuintli (Dog) is governed by Mictlantecuhtli, God of Death, as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Itzcuintli is the guide for the dead, the spirit world's link with the living. Itzcuintli is a good day for funerals and wakes and remembering the dead. It is a good day for being trustworthy, a bad day for trusting others of questionable intent.
The thirteen day period (trecena) that starts with day 1-Atl (Water) is ruled by Chalchihuihtotolin. These are 13 days of instability and unexpected events, of accidents and coincidences: these are good days to gamble a little on a long-shot; bad days to gamble a lot on a sure thing. Every day rollercoasters between all-good and all-bad, between rapture and terror. This trecena advises the priest-warrior to perfect the art of shapeshifting: only by mimicking the nature of water do we become an agent of change rather than a target of it. The purified heart casts no reflection in the smoking mirror.