Meaning
This day is read through two different words. In Yucatec k'an is ripe or yellow; Thompson read the glyph as maize and gave the day to the maize god. In K'iche' the name is K'at, the net.
The Komon Tohil daykeepers explain K'at as the net that holds the maize cobs and as tangling and untangling; the Maya' Wuj manual adds fire and the weaving of life and calls it the best day for undoing knots.
Our reading follows the highland net: gathering, keeping and getting caught up, and the work of untying the knots of worry and obligation that collectors and organisers tend to gather. The words are ours.
In the highlands today
In Zunil K'at is a day to ask for a child to be born; Maya' Wuj also makes it a day for abundance. In Momostenango, Andrés Xiloj said, the net is the one in which the ears of maize are gathered.
The pairing of net and maize runs through both names: the Yucatec word names the ripe grain, the K'iche' word the net that carries it.
The glyph and the old readings
The Classic reading is uncertain (Ohl? in the handbook). In Landa's Yucatan K'an was the first of the four dominical days that could open a year, assigned to the south; it is not a bearer in the highland count.
The Central Mexican day of the same position is Cuetzpalin, the lizard, an image that has nothing to do with the net or the maize.
In the count
K'at comes round every twentieth day, thirteen times in the 260: on days 4, 24, 44, 64, 84, 104, 124, 144, 164, 184, 204, 224 and 244, with the numbers 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7, 1, 8, 2, 9, 3 and 10 in that order, so 4 K'at is its first day in the count and 10 K'at its last. In the nawal cross of a person born on K'at, the day eight before (conception) falls on Ajmaq, the day eight after (destiny) on E, six before (the right hand) on Tijax and six after (the left hand) on Tz'i', 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)
- maize sourced
- Presiding god of the day, after Thompson
- the maize god sourced
- Old augury, Yucatan and the highlands, after Thompson
- ripe (highlands); maize (Yucatan); gradings differ between communities disputed
- The name, as the Zunil daykeepers explain it
- net; tangle and disentangle; the net that protects the maize cobs sourced
- Direction and colour
- south, yellow (k'an): Landa gives this colonial bearer its direction sourced
- Our reading
- Gathering and keeping, and the knots that come with it: an organiser whose task is to untie worry and obligation. our construction
How the schools read it
- Classic inscriptions (epigraphers)
- Reading of the glyph: Ohl?
- J. Eric S. Thompson, 1950
- The glyph as maize; the day's god the maize god.
- Komon Tohil daykeepers, Zunil
- Net; tangle and disentangle; the net that protects the maize cobs.
- The Maya' Wuj manual
- Net, fire; the weaving of life; the best day for undoing tangles and for abundance.
- Momostenango (Andrés Xiloj, 2005)
- The net in which ears of maize are gathered.
- The Central Mexican count (tonalpohualli)
- Cuetzpalin, lizard: the day of the same position in a related but different count.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- "Yellow Seed" for the same position in its own count; not our name for the sign.
- EsoTerrier
- Gathering and keeping, and the knots that come with it: an organiser whose task is to untie worry and obligation. Our words.
Claims about it
-
K'at is the lizard, as its Aztec counterpart is.
falseWhat the record shows: Cuetzpalin is the Central Mexican day. The Maya names mean the net (K'iche') and ripe maize (Yucatec).
-
K'at bears years in every Maya calendar.
disputedWhat the record shows: It was a year bearer in Landa's Yucatan only; the highland bearers are Iq', Kej, E and No'j.
-
K'at is the "Yellow Seed".
falseWhat the record shows: That is a Dreamspell name, from a modern count that differs from the traditional one.
