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The Nahuatl word for moon is metztli but whatever name was used for these periods is unknown. Through Spanish usage, the 20-day period of the Aztec calendar has become commonly known as a veintena. Each 20-day period started on Cipactli (Crocodile) for which a festival was held. The eighteen veintena are listed below. The dates are from early ...
The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from August 11, 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6, 3114 BCE in the Julian Calendar (-3113 astronomical). The Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40.
Together, these calendars would coincide once every 52 years, the so-called "calendar round," which was initiated by a New Fire ceremony. Aztec years were named for the last day of the 18th month according to the 260-day calendar the tonalpōhualli. The first year of the Aztec calendar round was called 2 Acatl and the last 1 Tochtli.
Long Count dates are written with Mesoamerican numerals, as shown on this table. A dot represents 1 while a bar equals 5. The shell glyph was used to represent the zero concept. The Long Count calendar required the use of zero as a place-holder and presents one of the earliest uses of the zero concept in history.
The word nēmontēmi means "they fill up in vain". Spanish lexicographers glossed it as dias baldios, "wasted days".The interpretation is that the Mexicas considered the days unlucky, and most activities (including even cooking) were avoided as far as possible during the nēmontēmi period; however this interpretation is contested by Indigenous people.
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The writing system used is very close (and possibly ancestral) to the Maya script, using affixal glyphs and Long Count dates, but is read only in one column at a time as is the Zapotec script. An Epi-Olmec stela from Chiapa de Corzo is the oldest monument of the Americas inscribed with its own date: the Long Count dates it to 36 BCE.
The Annals list his victims according to the days of the Aztec calendar: old people on 1 Alligator; small children on 1 Jaguar, 1 Deer and 1 Flower; nobles on 1 Reed; everybody on 1 Death; and young people on 1 Movement. On 1 Rain, he shoots the rain, so that no rain falls, and on 1 Water, he causes drought.