9 Chan in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

9 Chan, 9th day in the 13-day Nok (Thread) Week
9 Chan (Chorti): Serpent
9 Kan (Quiche) / 9 Chikchan (Yucatec)
9 Coatl (Aztec): Head of Serpent
Direction: East

Note: Chan is the totem for the Ch'orti' Maya. Just as we recently celebrated daysigns named after two of the four Mesoamerican founders, Ik and Akbar, this day celebrates Jaguar Qitze, one of the two founders of the Maya lineages. This daysign was likely also called Hor Chan, or head serpent, in homage to the founder of the clan.

Nok Week: Nok describes the fine cotton (tinam) thread used in weaving and this week celebrates the ability of humans to utilize plants for clothing and other articles of higher civilization. This week might have been called ihben earlier, meaning earth spirit. It would have been easy to associate the rocking motion of the weaving loom with the rocking motion of the earth during an earthquake. This 13 day week will never have an eclipse, but follows an eclipse period every other tzolkin year. Mars will usually be retrograde every third tzolkin in Nok week. (Mars has a 780 day cycle or three tzolkin cycle.) Mars is retrograde now throughout this week. On the next Nok week (260 days), Mars will be an evening 'star' almost to disappear from the sky. On the Nok week following that, Mars will be a morning 'star'.

Acajutla High Tides: 6:24 AM and 6:48 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.53 meters average and decreasing. The next six days will have bad ocean fishing and crabbing. Time for a short trip to begin preparing land for planting.