Meaning
The K'iche' name Kan simply means snake, and scholars gloss the Yucatec Chikchan as the cosmological snake. Thompson read the glyph as the celestial snake, a serpent with reptilian and feathered aspects, and matched its god with the head that writes the number 9. The Classic phonetic reading is unknown.
The Komon Tohil daykeepers raise the serpent to the feathered serpent, the Framer and Shaper of the universe in the Popol Wuj, and give the day justice, truth and peace. The Maya' Wuj manual calls it the measure of the force in everything that exists.
Our reading: life force, wisdom and fairness, the power that shapes and renews, carried by people described as strong, perceptive and fair-minded. We do not borrow words from other traditions for it. The sentences are ours.
In the highlands today
In Zunil Kan is a day to ask for strength and work and to put anger away; Maya' Wuj makes it a day for balance and for the return of what was lost.
In Momostenango the name is heard as a play on kanoq, left behind, and the prayer is that peace may come, as Andrés Xiloj explained in 2005.
The glyph and the old readings
Thompson's tables give the snake as the day's association in Yucatan and the highlands alike. Kan is never a year bearer in any known set.
The Central Mexican day of the same position is Coatl, the snake: the same animal, in a count with its own gods.
In the count
Kan comes round every twentieth day, thirteen times in the 260: on days 5, 25, 45, 65, 85, 105, 125, 145, 165, 185, 205, 225 and 245, with the numbers 5, 12, 6, 13, 7, 1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4 and 11 in that order, so 5 Kan is its first day in the count and 11 Kan its last. In the nawal cross of a person born on Kan, the day eight before (conception) falls on No'j, the day eight after (destiny) on Aj, six before (the right hand) on Kawoq and six after (the left hand) on B'atz', each with its own number.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Thompson's reading of the glyph (1950)
- celestial snake sourced
- Presiding god of the day, after Thompson
- the celestial snake sourced
- Old augury, Yucatan and the highlands, after Thompson
- snake; gradings differ between communities disputed
- The name, as the Zunil daykeepers explain it
- feathered serpent; the Framer and the Shaper of the universe sourced
- Direction and colour
- east, red (chak): read off the four-direction cycle; not attested for this day itself, and not shown on our chart unverified
- Our reading
- Life force, wisdom and fairness, the power that shapes and renews: strong, perceptive and fair-minded. our construction
How the schools read it
- Classic inscriptions (epigraphers)
- Reading of the glyph not known
- J. Eric S. Thompson, 1950
- The glyph as celestial snake; the day's god the celestial snake.
- Komon Tohil daykeepers, Zunil
- Feathered serpent; the Framer and the Shaper of the universe.
- The Maya' Wuj manual
- Serpent; the measure of the force and energy of all that exists; a day for balance and for the return of what was lost.
- Momostenango (Andrés Xiloj, 2005)
- A sound play on kanoq, left behind: may peace come.
- The Central Mexican count (tonalpohualli)
- Coatl, snake: the day of the same position in a related but different count.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- "Red Serpent" for the same position in its own count; not our name for the sign.
- EsoTerrier
- Life force, wisdom and fairness, the power that shapes and renews: strong, perceptive and fair-minded. Our words.
Claims about it
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Kan is the "Red Serpent" of the Maya.
falseWhat the record shows: That is a Dreamspell name. Dreamspell is a count of 1990 that gives most dates a different sign.
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Kan has its own colour, guardian animal, gemstone and matching signs.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: No Maya source gives these. They were added by Western sites and apps, and their lists disagree.
-
Kan means the same in every Maya community.
disputedWhat the record shows: The scholars' celestial snake and the Zunil daykeepers' feathered serpent are two readings of one day.
