8 Facts about Aztec Calendar

Monday, April 27th 2015. | Cultures

Facts about Aztec Calendar tell you about the Aztec Sun Stone calendar. Have you seen their calendar before? If you want to know the real one, you can go to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It displays the Aztec stone calendar. The Aztec as well as the people from the Central Mexico who lived in pre-Columbian era had this calendar system. Find out more interesting facts about Aztec calendar below:

Facts about Aztec Calendar 1: how many calendars did the Aztec have?

Aztecs had two kinds of calendar. They were used for different purpose. The first one was used to track time, while another one was used to track the religious festival and ceremonies.

Facts about Aztec Calendar 2: tracing the time using Aztec calendar

Xiuhpohualli means solar year. It was the name of the Aztec calendar used to track the time. Based on this calendar, there were 18 months. Each month consisted of 20 days. However, the total day in the calendar was 365 days. There were five days left over. The Aztec believed that the five days were the lucky days for them. Get facts about Aztec gods here.

Aztec Calendar Facts

Facts about Aztec Calendar 3: tonalpohualli

Tonalpohualli means day count. It was the name of the Aztec calendar used to track the religious festival and ceremonies. This calendar was very important to the culture and civilization of Aztec. There were 260 days in the calendar. Each day was used to symbolize a combination of 21 days signs and 13 day signs. Get factfile.org/10-facts-about-aztec-civilization here.

Facts about Aztec Calendar 4: the same day again

The calendar would start in the same day again every 52 years. The Aztecs people were afraid that their life ended on this day. Therefore, they worshiped the god and performed the New Fire Ceremony.

Aztec Calendar Image

Facts about Aztec Calendar 5: the calendar cycle

Tonalpohualli consisted of 260 day cycle, while xiuhpohualli consisted to 365 day cycle.

Facts about Aztec Calendar 6: the nickname of the calendar

The Aztec people called tonalpohualli as the sacred calendar because it showed the exact time to conduct the religious festivals and ceremonies. Xiuhpohualli was called the agricultural calendar. It was made based on the sun.

Aztecs

Facts about Aztec Calendar 7: the wind and rain

The images of Ehecatl and Tlaloc were used to symbolize the Wind and Rain in the calendar.

Facts about Aztec Calendar 8: the current and the previous world

Each world in the calendar was called as the sun. The stone calendar showed the current world and the previous worlds. They also believed that each sun was inhabited by different species. The Aztecs thought that they were in the fifth sun.