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What are the names of the two Aztec calendars? What do they keep track of? How do the two calendars work together?

Answer 1

The two Aztec calendars are the tonalpohualli and the xiuhpohualli. The tonalpohualli is a 260-day ritual or divinatory calendar that keeps track of ceremonial days and is used for religious rites and determining auspicious times; it is made of 20 day-signs combined with a cycle of 13 numbers. The xiuhpohualli is a 365-day solar or agricultural calendar that keeps track of the solar year and seasonal/agricultural cycles; it consists of 18 months of 20 days (360 days) plus five nameless unlucky days (nemontemi).

The two calendars work together by running concurrently so that each single day has both a ritual designation (from the tonalpohualli) and a solar designation (from the xiuhpohualli). Because the 260-day and 365-day cycles have different lengths, a particular pairing of ritual-day and solar-day repeats only every 52 years (the Calendar Round, or xiuhmolpilli). This joint system guided Aztec religious ceremonies, naming, and agricultural planning, and the completion of a 52-year cycle was marked by important rites such as the New Fire ceremony.