The sun Aztec calendar tattoo, pictures and symbol are growing more popular with those who love beautiful art and interesting tattoos. It is also a tattoo that has stood the test of time with little or no changes to the symbology and features. Some people even believe that it is similar to the Mayan calendar as regards the end of the world. Some people who acquire the tattoos and art have no idea about the history of the symbol. The Aztecs had two different calendars each of which had a different number of days in their cycles. There was a 260-day calendar and a 365-day calendar. The 260-day sun Aztec calendar tattoo, pictures and symbol were also known as tonalpohualli, or counting of the days. I t was used for religious purposes, such as predicting the future. This calendar was divided into twenty 13-day periods. These periods all had their own individual name and symbol, including water and other sacred Aztec hieroglyphs. They recorded the passage of days by adding a dot to each hieroglyph, when it was passed during each 13-day period. The 365-day calendar, tattoo and symbol were known as xiuhpohualli, when being used to track days and months and/or zihuitl, when the counting of years was necessary. It was divided into 18 periods consisting of 20 days, with a final five day period that was regarded, in much the same many modern people treat Fridays the 13th, as being a very dangerous and unlucky group of days. There were specific festivals for each time period. These periods were linked to the yearly agricultural cycle, and dictated the religious rites and tasks associated with agriculture, such as planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables. Days were recorded with hieroglyphs and dots and years were marked with one of four symbols: rabbit, reed, and house or flint knife. To differentiate days and months from years, as the same symbols were used throughout the year, the Aztecs enclosed the year symbols in squares. They gave each of 52 years its own unique and individual name. This 52-year cycle was what the ancients considered a century. The final day was a very important religious day, marked with festivals for the renewal of the sun. Prior to the ceremonies the peoples would extinguish their hearth fires and begin to fast and destroy all of their kitchen utensils and other household items. Much like one of the Wiccan holidays, when the sun set on the final day the populous would wait for any sign that the sun would rise again and, when it did, the Aztecs people would begin a new 52-year cycle. Then the priests, who were dressed as gods, would make the pilgrimage from Tenochtitlan to a hilltop south of the city that was considered sacred. Once there they would perform “the new fire” ceremony, during which a prisoner captured in battle would be sacrificed to the sun. The priests would use the dead warrior’s body as a hearth and kindle a fire on it and once in flame distribute flaming torches amongst the people which they would then use to rekindle their hearth fires.

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