Contents
Eighth of the twenty. Yucatec Lamat; K'iche' Q'anil. The Classic main sign is a four-lobed star form — a quatrefoil with dots set into the quadrants — which is the same element used for ek', star, and specifically for Venus in the astronomical tables. That identification is one of the firmer ones in the day-sign inventory. The site's tooltip gives it as star, rabbit, and ripening Venus. Direction south, colour yellow.
The rabbit comes in from the Aztec cognate Tochtli, rabbit, whose patron is Mayahuel, goddess of the maguey and of pulque. Rabbit, moon and Venus travel together across Mesoamerica — the rabbit is the shape people saw in the full moon, and it turns up in Maya painting sitting in the moon goddess's arms.
Religion and daykeeping
The highland name pulls in a third direction, and it is the one that matters for present practice. Q'anil means ripe and yellow — the seed. In living highland practice, ethnographic accounts and Guatemalan Maya organisations describe Q'anil as the day of planting and of fertility: for the milpa, for seed set aside for sowing, for children and conception, and for the four colours of maize that stand for the four directions. It is widely spoken of as one of the most favourable days in the count. An ajq'ij born on Q'anil is spoken of as fruitful in whatever they take up, and as needing something to grow or the energy sours. Petitions for a good harvest and for a child are among the most common made on it. Which altar, and in what words, is taught within the apprenticeship, not on a page.
The star reading and the seed reading are not in conflict as the Maya sources use them. Venus is the star whose disappearance and reappearance is the visible model of something going under and coming back up — the same shape as a seed.
In the Classic and Postclassic record, Venus is the most carefully tracked body after the Sun and Moon. The Dresden Codex carries the Venus Table, a table of 65 Venus cycles running 37,960 days — which is exactly 146 Tzolk'ins and 104 Haabs, the arithmetic that lets the three counts be read off one page. Venus's heliacal rising was read as dangerous, its rays as spears aimed at named classes of victim. The Madrid Codex, dominated by working almanacs, threads the same 260-day structure through farming and hunting.
The Zapotec piyè and the Mixtec count share the twenty signs; Mixtec codices are conventionally glossed Rabbit at this position.
Key dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 600–500 BCE (contested) | Earliest 260-day count glyphs, Oaxaca — San José Mogote and Monte Albán. Zapotec, not Maya. |
| 36 / 32 BCE | Chiapa de Corzo Stela 2 and Tres Zapotes Stela C, the earliest dated Long Counts. Both partly reconstructed. |
| c. 250–900 CE | Classic period: day signs in cartouches; Venus warfare imagery on monuments at several sites. |
| 11th–12th c. CE (debated) | The Dresden Codex copy, including the Venus Table — 65 Venus cycles, 146 Tzolk'ins, 104 Haabs. |
| c. 1021–1154 CE | Radiocarbon range for the Maya Codex of Mexico, also a Venus table; long disputed, now generally accepted. |
| 1562 / 1566 | Landa burns the books at Maní, then records the twenty day names in his Relación. |
| 1905–1935 | The Goodman–Martínez–Thompson correlation, constant 584283. Mainstream, not unanimous. |
| 11 Aug 3114 BCE | Long Count zero under GMT 584283 (6 Sep 3114 BCE Julian); the 584285 variant gives 13 August. |
| 21 Dec 2012 | 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in — the anchor this site counts from. |
| 1995 / 1996 | Guatemala's Peace Accords recognise Maya spirituality and access to sacred places. |
In the count
Lamat returns every twenty days, with a coefficient seven higher each time — twenty modulo thirteen is seven — so the numbers run 7, 1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13 and then repeat. Thirteen appearances, 260 days.
Upcoming in 2026, on the site's GMT anchor: 18 August (13 Lamat), 7 September (7 Lamat), 27 September (1 Lamat).
Related
- Maya Tzolk'in — the system, the count, and what it is not.
- Manik' — the day before.
- Muluk — the day after.
- World Zodiacs · Religion · Calendar