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Whether
thumbing through street vendors' wares or wandering through shops and boutiques,
you are sure to encounter a variety of goodies bearing the image of the
Sun Stone, better known as the Aztec Calendar. Both a beautiful work of
art as well as a calendar with rich symbolism, the Aztec Calendar is full
of fascinating information about the ancient culture from which it derives.
Although the Aztec Calendar is a popular image now depicted on everything
from jewellery to ashtrays, the original is an artifact of amazing accomplishment.
Weighing almost 25 tons and measuring twelve feet in diameter and three
feet thick, the monolith of basalt rock was intricately carved by stone
knives in the late fifth century. (A dedication carved at the top of the
stone indicates its completion in 1479.) The relief was then decorated in
bright, brilliant colors: red, green, yellow and turquoise. The magnificent
Sun Stone was uncovered in 1790 in México City. Since today's México City
was built on top of Tenochtitlan-- the capital of the ancient Aztec empire--
ruins from Tenochtitlan continue to be discovered today. After it was excavated,
the Sun Stone was displayed at México City's cathedral. However, it was
later transferred to the city's National Museum of Anthropology, where it
resides today. Upon observing the Sun Stone or an accurate reproduction,
it is obvious that the Aztec Calendar is a very complex design. But what
is even more complex is the symbolism in the design, representing the way
the Aztecs perceived and interpreted their world; how facets such as time,
gods, planets, stars and elements are explained to understand the universe
and how it works. For the Aztecs, religion was the driving force in all
aspects of life. They believed that the continuity of life on earth depended
on the correct interpretation of their gods' demands. As the gods had created
the world, so could they destroy it. And so the Aztecs, as their humble
human servants, appeased the gods with rituals and offerings: from flowers
to human sacrifice. As per the calendar, days and rituals were divided among
the gods to maintain a sense of balance. Like elemental forces, such as
the seasons, so too must opposing divine powers be balanced. Imbalance would
almost certainly mean a war for supreme power and, thus, the end of the
world. The Aztec pantheon consisted of about 1600 deities, all with multiple
forms. Many of them were agricultural gods because the Aztec culture was
one that relied heavily on farming. Therefore, the Aztecs held many religious
ceremonies to ensure the production of good crops, winning the favour of
the gods and thanking them for the harvest. The Aztec Calendar was actually
two calendars in one: a civil, or solar calendar, based on the agricultural
year and a ritual, or sacred calendar, used as a divinatory tool. The civil
calendar-- known to the Aztecs as the xíhuítl-- is much like our own Gregorian
calendar, with seasons and 365 days. The Aztecs used this calendar to keep
track of the equinoxes and ceremonies and rituals affiliated with the agricultural
cycles. This calendar is divided into eighteen months of twenty days (each
month was comprised of four five-day weeks), bringing the year to a total
of 360 days. At the end of the year, five "unlucky" days were added, bring
the total year to 365 days. These final five days are called nemontemi,
meaning "empty days." The addition of these wasted days was necessary to
balance the year. (The importance of this balance will be easier to comprehend
after you read about and understand the xíhuítl's relationship to the ritual
calendar.) To to take a stab at employing the Aztec Calendar to keep track
of the xíhuítl, locate the innermost concentric ring, bearing 20 iconographic
squares. Each square is a daysign. The first day begins with Crocodile (Cipactli
in Nahuatl, the Azteca language), which is the icon at |
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the top and slightly to the left of the ring. The order of days continues
in a counter-clockwise direction until all 20 days are complete and the
cycle repeats for the next month (see sidebar for the names and icons of
each day). Like the xíhuítl, the tonalpohualli ("count of days"), or ritual
calendar, makes use of the 20 daysigns. However, the tonalpohualli consists
of only 260 days a year. Each day combines one of the 20 daysigns as well
as a number from one to thirteen (the Aztecs recorded numbers one to thirteen
with dots). The result is a year of 20 thirteen-day weeks, with the first
week beginning on 1-Crocodile and ending on 13-Reed. The second week (continuing
where the last day of the counter-clockwise week left off) begins with 1-Ocelot
and ends with 13-Death's Head. After 260 days, the cycle begins again with
1-Crocodile. The symbolism of the tonalpohualli is a prediction of the favourable
and unfavourable days of the year, making this divinatory calendar the most
important calendar in Aztec life. As per the sidebar depicting the 20 daysigns,
each daysign was ruled by a god or goddess. Each deity represented an elemental
force. In addition to each day, the tonalpohualli was also divided into
thirteen-day periods called trecenas, whereby a deity also ruled over each
trecena. Furthermore, the nature of the day was also influenced by its number
(one to thirteen). For example, the protector of day Ehecatl (Wind) is Quetzalcoatl,
or "Plumed Serpent," the god of knowledge and the preisthood. Ehecatl is
a bad day for working with others. Its influences are inconstant and vain.
However, Ehecatl is a good day to root out bad habits. Therefore, the concept
behind the tonalpohualli is similar to an ancient equivalent of the horoscope
section of daily newspapers. Numerology is particularly important in the
Aztec calendar. Obviously accomplished mathematicians, the Aztecs had a
well-developed system of cycles and order, balanced by numbers. For the
Aztecs, all life was one and humans were in harmony with the cosmos. Cycles
in everything from human life to the rotation of the planets to the seasons
and days of the year kept order and maintained stability. A simple example
of numerology in the Aztec Calendar has to do with the 360 days in a civil
year (not including the five "wasted days"): The circumference of a circle
is 360 degrees and a circle is the graphic representation of a cycle. One
of the most important cycles of the Aztec calendar was the completion of
52 years, known as xíuhmolpilli, which was the end of a century in the Aztec
calendar cycle. Every 52 years, the xíhuítl (civil calendar) rotates 52
times (365 x 52 = 18, 980) and the tonalpohualli (ritual calendar) rotates
73 times (260 X 73 = 18, 980). Therefore, after 52 years, both calendars
have reached the same point-- completing their cycles at the same time.
This conjuncture (which occurs because 18,980 is the least common multiple
of 365 and 260) won't occur again for another 52 years. Also occuring every
52 years is the culmination of the stars of the Pleiades, completing their
own cycle by gathering directly overhead, above the "Hill of the Star."
The Aztecs celebrated every xíuhmolpilli with a festival of the new fire
(toxíuh molpílía). Rituals and ceremonies at this celebration included destruction
and renewal rites: extinguishing all existing fires, destroying idols and
pots, sacrificing to the gods and igniting a new fire, which was then distributed
throughout the empire. Although the xíhuítl and the tonalpohualli are both
interesting and important facets of the Calendar, the Aztec Calendar is
probably best-known for its centrally-located figures, which illustrate
and prophesize the evolutionary cycle of the Aztec world: when the Aztec
world began, how it endured and how it would end. To learn more about this
crucial forecast, check back next month for the conclusion of "Mysteries
of the Aztec Calendar." |
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Detail of the center rings of the calendar
Click to enlarge
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