3 Ak in the Mayan Calendar

3 Ak, 3rd day in the 13-day M'ax (Monkey) Week
3 Ak, (Chorti'): Grass, such as edible teosinte grass
3 Aj (Quiche) / 3 Ben (Yucatec): Grass
3 Acatl (Aztec): Grass or reed
Direction: East

Note: Corn was hybridized from a wild grass called teosinte. The Chortis call this imix ak. This day sign is associated with developing as a society through agriculture, following yesterday which celebrated healing and relieving pain through plants. 

The Quiche word aj meant 'ear of corn' in addition to grass. In Chorti, ear of corn is k'ab nar, which is a near rhyme with the word for night, ak'bar, which could be literally translated as 'leave the light'. The ka and ak syllables are common to both. Ak'bar is the day sign opposite (10 away from) Ak.

Another meaning is ak', which is a k sound with a bit of a click, which is a prefix or suffix meaning 'to let' or 'to leave', as in the Spanish 'dejar'. A third meaning is ax, which means striped. This sign is often portrayed with stripes. Finally a fourth meaning is ahk'u, which means to provide.

Two more associations, include squash and domesticated animals. Axko is striped squash and arak is to domesticate animals, the main one being turkeys.

Monkey Week

This 13 day week will often have an eclipse every other tzolkin year. If it happens early in the week it may be a full or partial eclipse but if it happens late in the week it is penumbral (minimal), since we are nearing the end of the eclipse period. Monkey is also the only week of the tzolkin where Mars is always retrograde (for at least several hundred years), every third tzolkin (Mars has a 780 day cycle - three tzolkins). Mars is retrograde now. And will be again three Monkey weeks from now. On the next Monkey week (260 days), Mars will be an evening 'star' almost to disappear from the sky. On the Monkey week following that, Mars will be a morning 'star' having recently appeared in the eastern sky before dawn.

Acajutla High Tides: 5:04 AM and 5:32 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.60 meters average and decreasing. Fishing and ocean harvesting will be bad until the next high tide in about 12 days.