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Wiki concept · Maya & Mesoamerican calendars

Chol Q’ij

Also called Chol Q'ij

The K’iche’ name for the living sacred day count, whose cultural practice should not be reduced to a generic birthday label.

In this entry

Word origin · etymology

K’iche’ Maya calendrical name.

Chol Q’ij is the K’iche’ name for the sacred day count, alongside the Yucatec name Tzolk’in. These are distinct language forms, not English acronyms.

Smithsonian NMAI: The Calendar System ↗

How we know · epistemology

Living cultural calendar practice

The sacred count is sustained through K'iche' knowledge and practice, beyond its arithmetic pattern. A software conversion can identify a date under stated conventions; it cannot confer the authority or lived knowledge of a daykeeper.

Smithsonian NMAI: the Maya calendar system ↗

Connected concepts

Browse other concepts in Maya & Mesoamerican calendars →

These links connect subjects and terminology. They do not establish a shared historical origin.

Sources & provenance

Use the citations beside each section to distinguish a calculation convention, a historical teaching and an editorial example.

Find these sources across the wiki →

  1. Smithsonian NMAI: the Maya calendar system ↗