When Does The 260 Day Calendar Begin?
by Kenneth Johnson
I just want to make a note about the idea that 1 Imox is the beginning of the count of days. It was definitely the beginning of the Aztec or Mexica count, and since they inherited all the Toltec knowledge, it was probably the beginning of the Toltec count as well.
Here is a fact that most people don’t know: ONLY ONE WRITER CLAIMS THAT IMOX (Yucatec: Imix) WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE YUCATEC COUNT. That writer is Diego de Landa, who is more famous for burning all the Maya codices than he is for preserving their culture. There are four other colonial writers who claim that K’at (Yucatec: Kan) was the beginning of the count, and this is in agreement with the Books of Chilam Balam, which were actually written by, uh, the Maya.
There is also a lot of evidence that during the Classic Period (200-800 CE) the beginning of the count was No’j (Yucatec: Caban).
De Landa probably got his info from Sahagun, who used Aztec sources. Sahagun, by the way, was cool. He never claims that the knowledge he recorded was the work of the “Devil,” as so many other Spanish writers did. He went out and found very old men who had been in the calmecacs or wisdom schools, and he recorded every word they said accurately. It gets better: He recorded it in the original Nahuatl language, in which he was fluent, and then made his own translation into Spanish. His complete work on Aztec culture runs to 12 volumes — and yes, that’s 12 volumes in Nahuatl. It is no wonder that he is called “the father of anthropology.”
Definitely a cool dude.
The contemporary K’iche’ begin their count with 8 B’atz’.
Imix could be considered a logical beginning because each World Age must end on the day 4 Ahau, which is followed by 5 Imix as the beginning of the next World Age.
The 260 day calendar is a circle. Where does a circle begin? Well, it begins wherever you choose to step into it.
http://www.jaguarwisdom.org
