Meaning
Eight is a middle number in the highland scale as reported, and the luck of numbers differed between towns in Thompson's survey: he found eight counted the most fortunate among the Jakaltek. We read no fortune into it, and our middle band is our own grouping.
Our sentence: eight carries completeness in the highland count, because 8 B'atz' is the day the count is renewed and daykeepers are initiated. The keyword "wholeness, ceremony" and the sentence are ours, a reading aid.
Days and ceremonies
8 B'atz', Waqxaqib' B'atz', is the New Year of the 260-day count in Momostenango and across the highlands: new daykeepers are presented at the shrines, and those already initiated return to renew their vows. Guatemala's Ministry of Culture gave 18 January 2025, 5 October 2025 and 22 June 2026 as the days, 260 days apart.
Its first day in the count is 8 Q'anil, day 8 of the 260. 8 No'j bore the highland year that opened on 20 February 2020.
The numeral
One bar and three dots. Thompson identified the Classic head for 8 as the maize god, the god of the day K'an.
The scribes stacked the dots for the ones above the bar for five, so eight is read from the bar up.
In the count
The number 8 falls on twenty days of the 260: days 8, 21, 34, 47, 60, 73, 86, 99, 112, 125, 138, 151, 164, 177, 190, 203, 216, 229, 242 and 255, with the signs Q'anil, Imox, I'x, Kej, Ajpu, Aj, Kame, Kawoq, E, Kan, Tijax, B'atz', K'at, No'j, Tz'i', Aq'ab'al, Ajmaq, Toj, Iq' and Tz'ikin in that order. A sign comes back every twenty days and a number every thirteen, so the same pairing, such as 8 Q'anil, returns only after 260 days. Each year the highland year bearer's number rises by one, because 365 days are 28 runs of thirteen and one day more.
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.
- Strength, in the highland reports
- The number gives the day its force: low numbers gentle, high numbers strong (Tedlock at Momostenango and Bunzel at Chichicastenango, as reported) sourced
- Our band
- middle; the bands and their edges are EsoTerrier's grouping, not a published scheme our construction
- Our keyword and sentence
- "wholeness, ceremony"; Eight carries completeness in the highland count: 8 B'atz' is the day the sacred count is renewed and daykeepers are initiated. our construction
- Head variant of the numeral, after Thompson
- the maize god, the god he gave to the day K'an sourced
- A fixed character for the number
- None established; which numbers are good differs from town to town disputed
How the schools read it
- Highland ethnography, as reported
- The number is the strength of the day, gentle in the low numbers and strong in the high.
- Thompson's survey of highland towns
- Which numbers count as good or bad differs from town to town.
- Classic scribes
- Wrote 8 as one bar and three dots, or as a god's head: the maize god, in Thompson's identification.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- Gives each number a name of its own in a different modern count; not used here.
- EsoTerrier
- Middle in our bands; keyword "wholeness, ceremony". Our words, a reading aid.
Claims about it
-
The number 8 has a fixed traditional character.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: The highland reports give the numbers strength, low gentle and high strong; fixed characters per number are modern, and our own keyword is labelled as ours.
-
Eight is one of thirteen cosmic "tones" with a Maya name.
falseWhat the record shows: The tone names are Dreamspell's, from 1990. The Maya count has numbers 1 to 13.
