The Hñahñu calendar. An epistemic and semantic analysis to establish its structure

Abstract

This research has been carried out within the framework of a larger study that the author is developing on the conceptualization of time-space order of two cultures of Oto-Mangue linguistic affiliation: the Otomi and the Maya. Two premises have been used: first, that both civilizations would have participated in the structuring of the 260-day cycle and the 365-day cycle, and that they would have perpetuated the 260-day cycle synchronously, despite their geographical separation; second, that the Nahua culture would have introduced certain changes to the Hñahñu calendar to give it its own character, such as slightly shifting the cycle, and starting the year on a date prior to the Otomi annual start. A comparative study of the Mexica and Hñahñu charger days has then been conducted, using as a calendar support the 260-day Mayan Tzolk’in cycle identified in the course of the Mayan calendar study (Patrick, Manuscripts 1-4). Thus, it has been possible to elucidate that: the Hñahñu-Otomi year is structured to follow the Moon within the framework of the oriented solar year; that the 365-day cycle begins on Gregorian March 29; that the day that names the year (or charger) is number 359, that is, the penultimate day of the 18th twenty, called Ambuœndaxi in the Huichapan Codex, which corresponds to March 22, the equinoctial day; that the tradition of celebrating the Hñahñu “New Year” on March 19 in the State of Mexico may be due to the fact that the date of the Julian calendar has been transcended; and that based on ethnographic information obtained in the field, the closing of one hundred Anuixuii beads (52 years) represented in the necklace of one hundred beads “thebe” occurred in 2006-2007, in the year 1 Anqua (1 Rabbit).