Aztec and Maya Calendar
In the tonalpohualli, the sacred Aztec calendar, Sunday October 26, 1544 is:
Xihuitl:
solar year
13 - Tecpatl (flint knife)
Long Count:
Mayan calendar
11.16.5.1.0
Xiuhpohualli:
365-day calendar
2 - Quecholli (XV)
(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.
13-Xochitl is last day of a tonalpohualli of 260 days.
Day Xochitl (Flower) is governed by Xochiquetzal, Flower Feather, as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Xochitl is a day for creating beauty and truth, especially that which speaks to the heart who knows it will one day cease to beat. Xochitl reminds us that life, like the flower, is beautiful but quickly fades. It is a good day for reflection, companionship and poignancy; it is a bad day for repressing deep-seated wishes, desires and passions.
The thirteen day period (trecena) that starts with day 1-Tochtli (Rabbit) is ruled by Xiuhtecuhtli, Lord of the Year. Tochtli is the last trecena of the sacred year. It signifies the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new one. These are 13 days associated with the mystical sacrifice proper to the vanguard of another age: it is an auspicious time, one great workers united in their goals; it is also a dangerous time, one of great risks requiring great courage and diligence. These days remind us of the old god, the first god, who both separates and unites the worlds of dreaming and waking: somewhere between winter and spring, something wakes in the dreaming heart which endures across the span of the cycling ages. These are good days to focus on the needs of others; bad days to focus on one's own needs.
