Aztec and Maya Calendar
In the tonalpohualli, the sacred Aztec calendar, Saturday January 22, 1519 is:
Xihuitl:
solar year
13 - Tochtli (rabbit)
Long Count:
Mayan calendar
11.14.18.16.11
Xiuhpohualli:
365-day calendar
3 - Nemontemi (-)
(Correlation: Alfonso Caso [adjust])
The significance of this day
Aztec facts
Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital was captured by Hernán Cortés on August 13, 1521 (day 1-Coatl). This date, as recorded by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, provides an anchor for the correlation of the calendar.
This is the third 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 Ozomahtli (Monkey) is governed by Xochipili, the Flower Prince, as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Ozomahtli is a day for creating, for play, for celebrating. A good day for lightheartedness, a bad day for seriousness. Ozomahtli is a warning about how easily the noble person can be trapped by the lures of public life.
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.