THE AZTEC CALENDAR represents 260 days of thirteen months (each containing twenty days) that determined the life of each Mexica (Aztec). In Aztec society, priests would consult the calendar to determine auspicious days for weddings and other important events. The portion displayed here contains the symbols for each day and the sun, moon, and stars. The calendar wheel was drawn in the early nineteenth century from documents written prior to the Spanish conquest in 1521.
Mariano Fernández EcheverrÌa y Veytia. Calendar Wheel, no. 7 from Historia del origen de las gentes que poblaron la América septentrional (History of the Beginnings of the People Who Settled North America). Early nineteenth-century facsimile manuscript. Peter Force Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
