The Tzolk’in
The Maya count of 260 days: thirteen numbers turning against twenty named days, so that each pairing comes round once in 260. Here is where any date falls in it, with the Haab’ year and the Long Count beside it.
Starts from the birth date kept on this device, or from today. Nothing is sent anywhere.
What the Tzolk’in is
The Tzolk’in, a modern name made from Yucatec Maya words for a count of days, is a cycle of 260 days kept across Mesoamerica for well over two thousand years and still kept by daykeepers in highland Guatemala. Each day has a number from 1 to 13 and one of twenty day signs, from Imix to Ajaw. Both move on together every day, so 1 Imix is followed by 2 Ik’, and 13 Ben by 1 Ix, and the same pair comes back only after 13 times 20 days. Beside it ran the Haab’, a year of eighteen named months of twenty days and five days called Wayeb’. A pairing of a Tzolk’in day and a Haab’ day returns every 18,980 days, about 52 years, which is the Calendar Round. For longer spans the Classic Maya counted days in the Long Count, in units of 1, 20, 360, 7,200 and 144,000 days from a zero date in 3114 BC.
How it is worked out here
The page turns the date into a Julian Day Number, the running count of days astronomers use, and subtracts 584,283. That is the Goodman–Martinez–Thompson correlation, which puts 13.0.0.0.0 on 21 December 2012, a day 4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in. It is the standard correlation, the one most Mayanists use, and it agrees with the count still kept in Guatemala, but it is not the only one: the close variant 584,285 puts 13.0.0.0.0 two days later, and older proposals differ by centuries. Dates are Gregorian, extended back before 1582 where needed, and a day runs from midnight to midnight. It is arithmetic throughout, so there is no rounding in it. It is also not the Dreamspell count popular online since the 1990s, which skips leap days and so rarely gives the same day.
What it claims
The day signs carry traditional associations, and daykeepers read the day of a birth for character and calling, much as a birth chart is read elsewhere. The short glosses on this page are the usual translations of the names, not readings. The page works out which day a date falls on, exactly, and predicts nothing.
Questions people ask
What is my Mayan day sign?
Put your birth date in the date field, or choose Your birth if your details are already saved on this device, and the page gives your day in the Tzolk’in: a number from 1 to 13 with one of the twenty day signs, such as 8 Ben, and the usual translation of the sign’s name. It also shows the Haab’ date and the Long Count for the same day. The whole count is arithmetic done in your browser with the standard GMT correlation, and nothing is sent anywhere.
How does the 260-day Tzolk’in calendar work?
Two cycles run side by side. The numbers go from 1 to 13 and start again, and the twenty day signs go from Imix to Ajaw and start again, both moving on by one each day. Because 13 and 20 have no common factor, every pairing of a number with a sign comes up exactly once before the pattern repeats after 260 days. On the board on this page that shows as a diagonal: each day steps one row down and one column across, wrapping round at the edges.
Why do some sites give a different Mayan day sign?
Usually for one of two reasons. Many popular sites use the Dreamspell count, a modern system that does not count 29 February, so it slips a day against the traditional count every leap year and rarely agrees with it. Others use a different correlation between the Maya calendar and ours. This page uses the Goodman–Martinez–Thompson correlation, 584,283, which matches the count still kept by daykeepers in highland Guatemala, and the note under your day shows what the close alternative, 584,285, would give.
What is the Maya Long Count?
The Long Count is the Maya way of counting days from a fixed zero date, 11 August 3114 BC under the standard correlation, written as five numbers: bak’tuns of 144,000 days, k’atuns of 7,200, tuns of 360, winals of 20 and k’ins of single days. A cycle of thirteen bak’tuns was completed on 21 December 2012, written 13.0.0.0.0, a turning of the count rather than an ending. The page gives the Long Count for any date after the zero date, with the number of days counted.