Most of us must have heard about Mayan Calendar, But there is one more calendar called Aztec Calendar where all the dating system were made similar to Mayan calendar. This Aztec Calendar was used during the Aztec empire( large empire in the 15th and 16th century which ruled central and southern Mexico)
This Aztec Calendar is circular in shape calendar stone , was uncovered in 1790 from Mexico city weighting around 25 tons with a diameter of 3.7 meters (12 feet), currently placed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico.
Aztec Calendar has a face of Aztec Sun God (Tonatiuh) at the center, surrounded by four square panels honoring previous incarnations of the deity that represent the four previous ages of the world surrounding to that there are signs that represent the 20 days of the Aztec month.
Similar to Mayan Calendar, Aztec Calendar also have two cycles-
1. Ritual Cycle.
2. Civil Cycle.
Ritual Cycle-
The ritual cycle (Tonalpohualli) consist of 260 days. It contained two smaller cycles, with an ordered sequence of 20 named days with a sequence of days numbered from 1 to 13.
The 13 day cycle was particularly important for religious observance, and each of the 20 numbered cycles within the ritual year was associated with a different deity.
Each named day was associated with a unique deity, and scholars believe that the combinations of ruling deities were used for divination.
Civil Cycle-
The civil cycle consist of 365 days. The civil year was divided into 18 months of 20 days each, plus an additional 5 days called nemontemi and considered to be very unlucky.
Same as Mayan calendar, the Aztec ritual and civil cycles returned to the same positions for every 52 years, an event was celebrated on this day called as the New Fire Ceremony.
In this ceremony, priests ignite a new sacred fire on the breast of a sacrificial victim, from which the people rekindled their hearth fires and began feasting.
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