Return to Top
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Astronomical Associations of "The Day of the Dead"

Just as the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe can be traced to the pre-Conquest festival honoring
the Nahua sun goddess Tonantzin at the winter solstice (December 12 in the Julian calendar),
so too, may we discern the origins of the "Day of the Dead"
in the Nahua ritual known as "the binding of the years".
Although the astronomical event which specifically provided the timing for the latter was
the zenithal passage of the Pleiades at midnight every 52 years
(a year known as "2 Reed" in the Nahua calendar),
there is the strong likelihood that the "Day of the Dead" represents an annual celebration
whose original purpose was to commemorate the same celestial event. . . .

At least as early as 800 B.C. and, more likely as early as 1000 B.C. -- judging from evidence at
Teopantecuanitlán, the Mesoamericans had realized that they could calibrate the beginning date of
their sacred almanac (August 13) anywhere within their homeland, even though the original fixing
of that event took place only with the zenithal passage of the sun over Izapa in the far south of Mexico.
This could be done simply by counting 52 days following the summer solstice and marking the
position of the setting sun against the horizon. Because they lacked any means of carefully defining
angular measurements, they employed constructed artifacts (such as pyramids or the alignment of
streets) in such locations to mark the resulting azimuths. It is these alignments which occur
throughout the Mesoamerican cultural realm and whose average azimuth measures 285.5º
(Illustrations from Teotihuacán and Tikal, amongst others, I have explained earlier.)

To pin down the date in their calendar which would correspond to that of November 1 in the
Gregorian calendar the Mesoamericans had merely to reverse the process described above.
By marking where on the horizon the sun rose 52 days ahead of the winter solstice,
they would be defining the azimuthal reciprocal of the August 13 sunset;
in other words, they were identifying an azimuth of 105.5º, because
on November 1 the sun reaches a latitude in the southern hemisphere
(14.7º) which is directly equivalent to the latitude of Izapa in the northern hemisphere.
(Of course, the sun returns to the same latitude 52 days after the winter solstice as well,
and thus rises at the same azimuth once more.
This event takes place on the equivalent of February 12 in the Gregorian calendar,
a date which Sahagún identified as the beginning of the Aztec year.
In an earlier article I have shown that this azimuth was also built into the "observatory"
constructed at Chalchihuites near the Tropic of Cancer,
most likely by the Toltecs in the ninth or tenth century.)
Less than a quarter hour after midnight the same day the Pleiades
passed through the zenith above Tula and/or Tenochtitlán.
Is it just another striking coincidence that the
major festivities of "the Day of the Dead" are timed to begin about midnight?
[From: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/dead.html - by Vincent H. Malmström -- Dartmouth College,
author of: "Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization" (1997)]

TRIBAL

E98 C15 M4 - Robert Hall Merrill: The calendar stick of Tshi-zun hau-kau (Winnebago)
(Bloomfield Hills, Mich: Cranbrook inst of sci 1945) - "yes!"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John R. Swanton, The Haida Calendar (Amer. Anthr., V, 1903, pp. 331-335):
Two periods of six months each, with 13th month intercalated between

SUMMER
1 Month when the berries are forming
Halibut month?
(also laughing geese begin to fly north & towards end of the month salmon-berry bird begins to sing)
------
southern - Sockeye month
(also the varied thrush or "swamp robin" begins to whistle, humming birds and wasps begin to appear)
March ?to April?
------
2 Weather still cold
Between month (intercalary)
(black-bears come out on shore; sparrow, murrelet and ha'dja come to lay their eggs;
geese fly north across the islands, fish begin to spawn; grass begins to grow)

April to May?
3 Killer whale month - cedar-bark stripped from trees make a noise like blowing killer whales (spring and white salmon begin to run)
May to June?
-----
Russet-black thrush (or salmonberry-bird) month (hair seals born, sea-gulls and another bird lay their eggs
and water is calm, so boys begin to play with toy canoes)
4 Great month - quite warm (fish become more plentiful, sap-layer of bark is thickest, so eaten now)

June to July? Switch with #3?
5 Many ripe berries (and eggs are hatched) (animals begin to grow fat)

July to Aug?
6 Many potlatches (also hump-back salmon jump in the sea)
Ice appears
Aug to Sept?

LOW tides accompany FULL moon - six of summer have names
HIGH tides at NEW moon - deaths occur - two of spring have names

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BOOK OF THE HOPI: see also page 235
(Sáqtiva - the Ladder Dance)

(from CALENDAR for book - Notes - file cleared October 2006)