The Indigenous History of El Salvador

9 Kanoa in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

9 Kanoa, 9th day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
9 Kanoa (Chorti): Canoe
9 K'at (Quiche) / 9 Kan (Yucateca): Ripe maize
9 Cuetzpallin (Aztec): Blue lizard or iguana

Direction: South

Note: I think that this day sign was originally Katu', the moon deity, and was then transformed to Kanoa or Kanhoh (canoe) between 3000 BC and 1800 BC when the Mesoamericans began their great traveling ventures in dug-out canoes up rivers and rafts over oceans to spread their knowledge of agriculture. There was probably a rhyme associated with this shift, like "Katu' K'anhuh, Katbu K'an a'n, K'aht Kanoa" or "on moon and iguana, cross over with golden ripe corn, by bridge and canoe" (doesn't quite work in English). Such double meanings and rhymes help explain the Quiche, Yucateca, and Aztec names for this day. Kan also means 'to learn' and Teo-kan (Island of Learning) was one of the first four island civilizations.

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Kanoa in Kilis week: Not only did the Mesoamericans share agricultural knowledge on their journeys by canoe, balsam raft, and reed boat, but they also shared and received knowledge of astronomy, including the eclipses.

Acajutla High Tides: 3:19 AM and 3:45 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 2.28 meters average and at its highest. It will be nearing its highest again in 13 days, on the 9th day of the next week.

8 Akbar in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

8 Akbar, 8th day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
8 Akbar (Ch'orti'): Night (Glyph of razors or jaguar fangs)
8 Aq'ab'al (Quiche) / 8 Ak'bal (Yucatec Maya): Darkness; night
8 Calli (Aztec): House

Direction: West

Note: Like yesterday, today's day sign honors the four great ancestors. Balam Akbar or dark jaguar was one of the four leaders that founded the Mayan-Mesoamerican civilizations. The nation that he founded was also called the Greathouses, possibly due to the large or long houses that they lived in. This is likely where the Aztec name for this day sign came from. The Greathouses lived near the ocean on El Salvador's eastern coast and became a great sailing people. Most of the great Mesoamerican peoples, other than the Mayans, come from the Balam Akbar lineage.

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Acajutla High Tides: 2:29 AM and 2:58 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 2.17 meters average and increasing.

7 Ik' in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

7 Ik', 7th day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
7 Ik' (Chorti'): The center of the galaxy; the void. Glyph of the tree of life.
7 Iq' (Quiche) / 7 Ik' (Yucatec Maya): The wind; center of the galaxy
7 Ehecatl (Aztec): Wind

Direction: North

Note: Ik' is the dark spot in the Milky Way, or the Tree of Life, and specifically the center of the galaxy where there appear to be no stars. Also known as the void. Now we know that there is a black hole at this location. When the Mars retrograde cycle happens while aligning with the center of the galaxy, it occurs on the earliest possible date of the tzolkin. This is because of the elongated orbit of Mars being pulled by the densest mass of the galaxy. This allowed the Mayans to predict the exact day of the turning or retrograde motion of Mars. This is also how the Mayans determined the exact center of the galaxy with such accuracy, i.e. when Mars turned retrograde in that spot it would lower the Mars retrograde calendar before expected or by two days rather than just the typical one. This day is also known as yaxte', which means 'tree of life'. This was symbolized by the Mayans as the ceiba tree.

The Mayans and Mesoamerican people communicated with the heart of darkness of the galaxy by entering a meditative trance induced by the windy smoke of burning tobacco incense. Later other materials, including copal, were used. The Mayans called this a (Tohil) bath. Ik Balam is also the name of one of the first four civilizing humans. Ik's village at the mouth of the Rio Lempa was most likely wiped out in the global flood event of the draining of Lake Agassiz in about 6400 BCE (Before Common Era).

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Ik' in Kilis Week: Ik' represents the ability to predict Mars retrograde and Kilis the ability to predict lunar and solar eclipses. Only in the last few years have humans, with the aide of computers, been able to replicate the astronomical feats of the Mesoamerican people.

Acajutla High Tides: 1:35 AM and 2:08 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 2.05 meters average and increasing. Good fishing and crabbing the next five days.

6 Imix in the Mayan Calendar

6 Imix, 6th day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
6 Imix (Chorti'): Breaking open (sprouting) earth; corn
6 Imox (Quiche) / 6 Imix (Yucatec Maya): Breaking open earth
6 Cipactli (Aztec): Alligator

Direction: East

Note: Ix is Mother earth; imix is the sprouting open of the earth - agriculture. Imix meant 'corn'. Later, between 2300 BC and 1500 BC, the crisis of pellegra hit the Mayans-Mesoamericans in El Salvador, first among the Quiches, which caused them to lose their leadership of the nation. Pellegra causes lesions, like a jaguar's spots, which eventually could break open, spilling one's blood. The Mayan's cosmology was adapted to account for this crisis. This also caused imix to be associated with 'diseased corn'. Later the discovery of the nixtamal process solved the pellegra crisis and quickly led to the dawning of the next phase of civilization.

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Acajutla High Tides: 12:35 AM and 1:13 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.83 meters average and increasing.

5 Sutz' in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

5 Sutz', 5th day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
5 Sutz' (Chorti'): Bat. Glyph of a stylized bat or chief
5 Junajpu (Quiche) / 5 Ahaw (Yucatec): Lord or chief
5 Xochitl (Aztec): Flower

Direction: South

The Mayans and other Mesoamerican peoples came out of two rooms of the Xibalba cave about 11,000 years ago. Three families came from the jaguar room and three families from the bat room. The lead family, who would become the Quiches, came out of the bat room. The Cakchiquels, who share the Quiche lineage, are still considered to be bat people. When the Quiches were banished from Tammakchan, the Chortis took over as lead nation and changed this day sign to the generic title of 'lord' and made it the important position as last day in the calendar. Yet the Quiché took the bat sign with them to Mexico where it was later morphed into Xochitl by the Aztecs (sutz' =~ xoch). By the time the Quiches returned to Guatemala and El Salvador, they had lost memory of this day as bat day.

The sign carries with it all of the drama of human politics, from the early days as a subject or slave in a cave with bats flying around, to leading the escape of the people, to being overturned from power, only to return again thousands of years later.

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Acajutla High Tides: 12:12 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.56 meters average and increasing.

4 Makchan in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

4 Makchan, 4th day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
4 Makchan (Chorti'): Rainbow. Glyph of clouds, rain, and box-like structure.
4 Kawuq (Quiche) / 4 Kawak (Yucatec Maya): both mean rain, rainstorms, or thunder
4 Quiahuitl (Aztec): Rainstorm, linked to the goddess 'Chantico'; goddess of hearth and home

Direction: West

Makchan or 'rainbow' consists of mak, a 'covering' or 'to stop up', and chan, which means 'serpent'. A serpent which covers up and stops the rainstorm. This day sign explains the totem of the Ch'orti' Maya people, which is chan or serpent. Perhaps better thought of as rainbow or the feathered serpent. One of their first homes was on an island inside a crater lake, Coatepeque, which they called Tammakchan or 'deep inside the rainbow'. They were safe inside the rainbow since the Xibalbans could not swim. Other Mayans later called this Tamoanchan. Kirik is 'thunder' in Ch'orti and might explain the Quiche and Yucatec names for this day.

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Acajutla High Tides: 11:02 AM and 11:28 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.43 meters average and increasing.

3 Tijax-Etz'nab in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

9th day in the 13-day Nok (Thread) Week
9 Tijax (Quiche) / 9 Etz'nab (Yucatec Maya): Sharp implement
9 Tecpatl (Aztec): Flint knife

Direction: North

Note: I'm not sure what the Ch'orti' name for this day is. Perhaps tahsib, which means machete, which was brought to the Mayans by the Chibchan-speaking peoples of Costa Rica, Panama, and Columbia, sometime in the the early Classic period. Or maybe k'ahk'tun (flint stone). The proto-Mayans discovered obsidian k'ahk'tun in about 8800 BC on Hacawitz mountain, which greatly enhanced their ability to make fire as well as flint spears and tools. Another possibility, close to the Quiche, would be tunyax or jade, although it is usually yaxtun.

Ch'orti' has dozens of words for knives and tools. Tool suffixes include the endings nib, sib, tib, chib, and xib. This day sign celebrates all of these tools. While some interpretations specify a meaning of human sacrifice for this day sign, that does not seem to be the case with the root words associated with various tools. Rather these are the instruments that allowed the Mayans to become agriculturalists and artisans.

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Acajutla High Tides: 8:37 AM and 9:07 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.31 meters average and at its lowest. In 13 days, on the 3rd day of the next week, the semi-diurnal tide range will be approaching its lowest point again.

2 Nok in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

2 Nok, 2nd day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
2 Nok (Chorti'): Thread or wick. Glyph of a spool or weaving
2 No'j (Quiche) / 2 Caban (Yucatec Maya): meaning 'earth'
2 Ollin (Aztec): Rocking (as in weaving). Glyph of weaver's tool

Direction: East

Note: Nok describes the fine thread used in weaving, whereas tinam was cotton or cotton fiber. This sign might have been called ihben earlier, meaning earth spirit, which might explain the Yucatec name and meaning for the day. It would have been easy to associate the rocking motion of the weaving loom with the rocking motion of the earth during an earthquake.

Kilis Week: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Acajutla High Tides: 8:37 AM and 9:07 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.38 meters average and decreasing. The next three days will have bad fishing and crabbing.

1 Kilis in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

1 Kilis, 1st day in the 13-day Kilis (Falcon) Week
1 Kilis (Chorti'): Falcon, bearer of the eclipse. Glyph of a shell
1 Ajmak (Quiche) / 1 Kib (Yucatec Maya): Falcon
1 Cozcacuauhtli (Aztec): Vulture

Direction: South

Note: For the Ch'orti, Ah Kilis, or 'falcon man' or 'falcon god' ruled the eclipses by eating the sun or moon. This would be the bat falcon, common throughout Mesoamerica, rather than the rarer orange-breasted falcon. The glyph for this day sign, the shell, is a symbol for 'empty', 'zero', and eclipse. In this case, the shell glyph represents a sky made empty by the falcon god eating the sun or the moon.

Many Mayan ballcourts have a falcon perched above, which serves as a messenger from 'Heart of Sky'. 'Heart of Sky' refers to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which the Mayas were able to locate with accuracy through the Mars retrograde long count calendar. The Mayans interpreted eclipses as the time that the falcon brings a message from the void, the heart of the Milky Way.

Acajutla High Tides: 7:37 AM and 8:04 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.47 meters average and decreasing.

13 Sih Muahn in the Mayan-Mesoamerican Calendar

13 Sih Muahn, 13th day in the 13-day Akbar (Night) Week
13 Sih Muahn (Chorti'): Black hawk. Glyph of a skull.
13 Tz'ikin (Quiche): Funeral festival
13 Men (Yucatec): To do
13 Cuauhtli (Aztec): Eagle
Direction: West

Note: The Quiche and Yucatec names appear to have become confused over time with the sound of the Chorti day sign. The black hawk or eagle was the creature that brought the serpent out of the sea or lake and mixed its blood with that of a tapir and corn dough (masa) to make the first Mayans, in the Popol Vuh creation story. The tapir (cimin) symbolizes those that ruled the cave that the Mayans escaped from. The serpent (chan) was brought out of the lake by the sih muahn and placed around a crater lake (Coatepeque) to make a rainbow (makchan) that protected the first Mayan people.

Akbar Week: Balam Akbar or Night Jaguar was one of the four leaders that founded the Mayan-Mesoamerican civilizations. The nation that he founded was also called the Greathouses, possibly due to the large or long houses that they lived in. The Greathouses lived near the ocean on El Salvador's eastern coast and became a great sailing people. Most of the great Mesoamerican peoples, other than the Mayans, come from the Balam Akbar lineage.

Acajutla High Tides: 6:46 AM and 7:10 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range (Difference in High/Low Tides): 1.54 meters average and decreasing.