page_title: Mesoamerican calendars
section_title: Central Mexican Calendar
hierarchical_section_title: Mesoamerican calendars / Central Mexican Calendar
caption_attribution_description: English: First drawing in the book "Descripción histórica y cronológica de las dos piedras que con ocasión del nuevo empedrado que se está formando en la plaza principal de México, se hallaron en ella el año de 1790"(or "Historical and chronological description of the two stones found during the new paving of the Mexico's main plaza." in English ) by Antonio de Leon y Gama (1792). The book describes Aztec calendars and specifically the discovery of the Aztec calendar stone in México. The image depicts an aztec sun calendar. Español: Primer dibujo del libro "Descripción histórica y cronológica de las dos piedras que con ocasión del nuevo empedrado que se está formando en la plaza principal de México, se hallaron en ella el año de 1790", escrito por Antonio de Leon y Gama en 1792. El libro describe el funcionamiento del calendario azteca y también el descubrimiento de la piedra del sol. La imagen representa un calendario solar méxica. Français&#160;: Dessin figurant un calendrier solaire aztèque. Premier dessin du livre intitulé Descripción histórica y cronológica de las dos piedras que con ocasión del nuevo empedrado que se está formando en la plaza principal de México, se hallaron en ella el año de 1790 ( Trad.&#160;: «&#160;Description historique et chronologique des deux pierres trouvées en refaisant le pavage de la grand' place de Mexico.&#160;») par Antonio de Leon y Gama (1792). Ce livre décrit les calendriers aztèques et particulièrement la découverte d'une pierre calendaire aztèque à Mexico.
context_page_description: Mesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. Besides keeping time, Mesoamerican calendars were also used in religious observances and social rituals, such as for divination.
  The existence of Mesoamerican calendars is known as early as ca. 500 BCE, with the essentials already appearing fully defined and functional. These calendars are still used in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.
  The importance of aboriginal calendars in ritual and other aspects of Mesoamerican life was noted by many missionary priests, travelers, and colonial administrators, and later by ethnographers who described and recorded the cultures of contemporary Mesoamerican ethnic groups.
context_section_description: The Central Mexican calendar system is best known in the form that was used by the Aztecs, but similar calendars were used by the Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Tlapanecs, Otomi, Matlatzinca, Totonac, Huastecs, Purépecha and at Teotihuacan. These calendars differed from the Maya version mainly in that they didn't use the long count to fix dates into a larger chronological frame than the 52-year cycle.
  The Aztecs referred to the 365 and 260-day cycles as xiuhpohualli (year count) and tonalpohualli (day count) respectively. The veintena was called metztli (moon), and the five unlucky days at the end of the solar year were called nemontemi.
caption: Image of an ancient Mexican calendar
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