Question for May 2023

The 260-day calendar, which is not a moon calendar, is composed of a cycle of 20 days, which repeats 13 times. Each day is also associated with a god who is part of a group or cycle of 9 gods. So, each day of the 260 day calendar links to a small group of gods that kept repeating.

Editor’s note: in our schools workshops we have, to keep things simple for young minds, suggested that the two main pre-Hispanic calendars were based on the sun and the moon; we realise now that we should call the older, 260-day calendar the ‘sacred’ calendar, which is in fact linked more to the growth cycle of a human baby in its mother’s womb - ie nine months.

Photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.

The 260 day sacred calendar - Codex Cospi (facsimile)