Sticks and Clay. Tz'ikin (Ch'orti'), Tz'ikin (Quiche), Men (Yucatec), Cuauhtli (Aztec)
Tz'ihk is clay or made of clay. Kin is sticks or grass blades. Tz'ikin celebrates the creation of humans - coming from sticks and clay and at death returning to sticks and clay. It also symbolizes the evolution of human beings.
This day sign gained a second meaning early in the Mayan timeline. Tzik is to count in Ch'orti' and k'in is day or sun. The second meaning for this day symbolizes when the Maya first started keeping track of days and using the tzolk'in calendar. This probably happened during the Mars long-count date of 9 Tz'ikin, which lasted from 8402 BCE to 8355 BCE. This would place it at Isla Tigre, Honduras. Tz'ikin may symbolize the oldest calendar used among humans.
Tz'ikin gained a third powerful meaning during the next time that it was the Mars long-count marker, 2 Tz'ikin from 7849 to 7834 BCE. The flood and tzuhnami at Lago Guija occurred during this time, on November 1, 7834 BCE. This is known because the Day of the Dead originates with that flood and the Ch'orti' term for Day of the Dead is sik'in, which means "series of days". More importantly a term was selected that sounded nearly identical to the Mars long-count day marker - Tz'ikin and sik'in. The Popol Vuh notes that the flood marked the end of the age of the stick humans - this primarily means that the 2 Tz'ikin (sticks and clay) long-count date was nearly at an end, but also symbolized the end of the humans of sticks and clay and the beginning of the humans of corn.
There is strong evidence for the Tz'ikin and sik'in (Day of the Dead) connection in the Ch'orti word for funeral or death ceremony, which is tz'i'k'in. Further evidence is provided by the Mayan glyph for the day which is a symbol of a dead person. The Aztec glyph is a flayed human face with an eye torn out. This symbolizes the bodies that washed ashore after the flood that the eagles (cuauhtli) and vultures picked on. These bodies came to look like the skeletons that are still used today to symbolize the Day of the Dead.
1 Tz'ikin corresponds to the period in history of 6777 BCE to 6587 BCE in the Mars retrograde long-count calendar.
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