[Odin]

(...continued)

Tzolk'in (Count of Days)

This is a 260 day calendar, and was used to keep track of religious and ceremonial events.

It was composed 13 periods (trecena) of 20 days (haab'). [13 × 20 = 260 days]

The names of the days (haab') are: Imix', Ik', Ak'b'al, K'an, Chikchan, Kimi, Manik', Lamat, Muluk, Ok, Chuwen, Eb' B'en, Ix, Men, Kib', Kab'an, Etz'nab', Kawak, and Ajaw.

The periods (trecena) were simply numbered 1 through 13.

Where most people get lost is how the progression of the dates is counted. After each day both the trecena and the haab' get incremented by 1.

Example sequence of dates:

01 Imix'
02 Ik'
03 Ak'b'al
04 K'an
05 Chikchan
06 Kimi
07 Manik'
08 Lamat
09 Muluk
10 Ok
11 Chuwen
12 Eb'
13 B'en
01 Ix ← This it the first day of a new trecena, and the 14th day of th tzolk'in
02 Men
.
.
.
12 Kawak
13 Ajaw ← This is the 260th (last day) of the tzolk'in
1 Imix ← Now you simply start at the beginning again

Every haab' and trecena had a symbol so that any date could be written with only 2 characters. Using this system every combination was unique, so a date like 10 Ok would only occur once during each cycle of the tzolk'in year.

With the tzolk'in there is no method for keeping track of the year. That's were the other calendars come in at.

(to be continued...)